St. Louis Conference: 2006
Table of Contents
Matthew 24
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
A song begins in heaven, more sweet and loud to him, that cleansed our sins by his atoning blood. To Him we sing in joyful strain Beyond her power, and praise all in #8 hole.
Unusual.
Again, I make it as a significant.
They had on it.
Several times in the last few months there have been questions raised with me, both from those gathered to the Lord's name and also from others.
About the Kingdom, the coming Kingdom, the earthly Kingdom, and how it all fits in with you and with me.
And there do seem to be.
Questions and perhaps even a slight bit of confusion on the subject at times. And also we know that there is that in that chapter, which is very much for our hearts and our consciences, bringing the forests, of course, the imminence of these things and how soon they can come to pass.
We don't need to spend excessive time on the little details, but.
I suggest that the chapter is a profitable one and.
I wonder what my brethren would think of at least taking it up for one meeting and more as the Lord may lead.
It's very timely.
Brother Bill, were you thinking of the entire chapter?
Well, it is. It is rather long, but if we could perhaps read the entire chapter to start with John, if that would be OK, and then see how things go. But it's nice to get what we get at the end of the chapter if we can take the time to read it.
John, would you mind coming up to a microphone? It might help too. Thanks.
Matthew, Chapter 24.
And Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See not all these things. Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives.
Disciples came unto him privately saying, Tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you be not troubled.
00:05:17
For all these things must come to pass.
But the end is not yet for nation shall rise against nation, and Kingdom against Kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes and divers places.
All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you off to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and you should be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another.
And shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure under the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. And then shall the end come, when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation.
Spoken of by Daniel the Prophet. Stand in the holy place. Whoso readeth, let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. But him which is on the House top not come down to take anything out of his house either. Let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes, and woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days.
But pray that your flight may not in the winter either on the Sabbath day. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time no, nor ever shall be. And accept those days should be shortened. There should no flesh be saved before the elect's sake. Those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo hears Christ, or there believe it not.
For there shall arise false Christ and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very election. Behold, I've told you before, Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert, go not. For behold, He is in the secret chambers, believe or not. Whereas the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even under the West.
So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be, for wheresoever the carcass is, thither will the Eagles be gathered together.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together as elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves. Ye know that summer is 9 So like Why ye, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, this generation cannot pass to all these things be fulfilled. Have an inertial pass away, but my word shall not pass away.
But on that day and hour, no, no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were social, also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, social also the coming of the Son of Man be.
Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you know now what hour your Lord does come. But know this, that if the Goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched. He would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
00:10:24
Therefore be also ready, for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat and due season. Blessed is that servant whom is Lord when he come and shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, that He shall make him ruler over all his goods.
But, and if that's our evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken the Lord, that servant shall come in a day when he looking not for him.
And in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall caught him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites, there should be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Doesn't I'm asking the question, doesn't this whole chapter, this entire chapter refer to a time after the church is raptured to heaven?
It's not now, but it's then. After we're gone between the two comings, first the Lord will come for us, and then He'll come with us to set up His Kingdom. Is that correct?
Yes, I believe so on.
We should be hearing it from you though, Brother Chuck, not asking us whether it's correct or not.
But my thought was just this, that very definitely this chapter does in its large measure apply to future blessing in Israel. And so it does take place after the Lord comes.
But the moral condition of things that will exist at that time, you and I are surrounded with them today.
And I believe, and others can correct me, but I have often appreciated this, that God in His Word sometimes gives us something which in its direct application belongs to another group of people. And yet He puts it there because the moral lesson that is to be learned is applicable to us too. One quick example, for example, in Philippians 3.
It talks about those whose God is their belly, who mind earthly things, and it says their end is destruction.
That clearly speaks of an unbeliever, but it is put there in an epistle written to believers in order that we might lay hold of that, because we too can be taken up with the things of this life and be taken up with selfish motives, and so on.
And so I suggest here that it on one hand provides us with a clear picture of the Lord Jesus dealing with this world.
With the ultimate end of taking his rightful place. We had that before us in the hymn that was given out at the prayer meeting. We had it before us in one sense in the hymn that was given out at the beginning of this meeting. Although the heavenly side of things more but here is the Lord Jesus about to have his rightful place and the various conditions of things that exist in the world that lead up to that so that perhaps it would be.
An opportunity to get clear in our hearts.
What the Kingdom is and how the Lord is going to take it, and yet at the same time to realize that.
The moral character of things that is described here, you and I are experiencing now. And we can take to heart especially what is at the end of the chapter, because that applies to us as well as to those in the coming day. Interesting that you say it's the blessing not only of this world, but with Israel in view. And I think in that connection, it's helpful to see the the context of this 24th and 25th chapter of Matthew.
00:15:16
Because if we were to back up to the previous chapter, we would find at the end of the chapter that the Lord Jesus weeps over Jerusalem. The rejection of his own was sealed, so to speak. It had really culminated. And now the Lord Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and he says to them, Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. He says that they're not going to see him until they say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, and he goes out of the temple, and he departs from Jerusalem.
The doom of Jerusalem and this nation in that way was sealed. But isn't it beautiful then, that between that and His agony in the garden, and ultimately His going to the cross, He takes up this subject here to show that this is not the end of the story? That in spite of the fact that He'd come unto His own, and His own received Him, not in spite of the fact that they rejected Him there, was going to be on the grounds of pure sovereign grace?
Blessing for that very guilty nation. And so Israel is going to be blessed in a coming day, not on the grounds that they he sought to bless them on in the Old Testament or even in the Gospels, but they're going to be blessed on the grounds of pure sovereign grace.
Think it's encouraging because if these chapters were not inserted here by the Spirit of God, what we have at the end of the 23rd chapter is a very bleak picture. If that was the end of Israel's history, we'd say, oh, how very sad, they'll never be blessed again. But brethren, there is a day coming when there's going to be the shout of a king amongst them. They are going to say, blessed be the name of the Lord. They're going to receive Him after their national and individual repentance. They're going to receive him as the king and the Messiah is going to be amongst them.
It's going to be a glorious day of brethren to think that Jerusalem is going to be the metropolis of the world someday, not Washington, DC, not Paris or London or Ottawa, but Jerusalem is going to be the center of everything. And a king is going to reign in righteousness and Princess shall rule in judgment. So it's very beautiful in connection with what Bill said, to see the context of this, these chapters, they're between the doom of Israel, the rejection of Israel.
He weeps over them, he says your house is lefty a desolate, and then he goes on to the cross.
But he doesn't go to the cross, He doesn't leave them without giving them this wonderful instruction and these prophetic words that there is a future day of blessing. Brother Jeff, do we not have here? 3 The Lord speaking to three different groups of classes of people. First, Israel.
The tribes of Israel, and then the Gentiles, and then finally Saints of God, you and me. And then we get into the 25th chapter.
Which is the picture of the church gone to sleep?
Am I right in thinking that the 1St 2 verses really?
Are the destruction of the temple at the time of Titus. So that is really in the church period, but it's from verse three on that really is what you were mentioning, Chuck, is the time of the tribulation period. Is that right?
The verse.
In chapter 12 of Genesis.
Is a very, very important verse when you're thinking of the nation Israel. God spoke to Abraham and just read one verse.
Verse two of chapter 12, the Lord said, I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. Well, that's really what's coming up.
After the tribulation period, but after we're gone in the seven-year tribulation period and the Lord Jesus descends with the Church, with his Saints, and sets up his Kingdom, so there Israel will be the leading nation, Christ will be the Messiah and ruling the entire world.
And it will be Israel, restored to blessings for the millennial day, won't it?
00:20:06
I think it is important that point because covenant theology.
Teaches that the church has replaced Israel and that Israel God's done with Israel. But that is not the case according to the dispensational teaching. We have it very clear in Scripture that Israel will again be the head of the nations, and through Israel in the earthly picture, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. But what I think is important to see in this chapter, brethren, it's not exactly.
Israel's blessing that is contemplating, contemplated. It's the breaking down of that stubborn resistance and that people to mortal anguish.
That when the Lord Jesus comes and they see him, and they say, what are those wounds in my hand? And they recognize him when they accept him, when they repent, and then they will be restored to blessing, as you were mentioning, on the basis of God's sovereign grace.
But really, Israel has been terribly persecuted through the ages, and the worst is still ahead for Israel. The most awful time of judgment is just ahead.
This chapter clearly shows us that.
Israel, according to the teaching you just mentioned, Bob, Israel is not going to be replaced by the church. Israel will be restored in a in this coming day, but it'll go through terrible trials before tribulation before that comes to pass. And that's what it will take to bring them to the end of themselves.
Sometimes thought about it because you think, as you say, of all that they've been through since they cried at the the trial of the Lord, his blood be on us and on our children. And we think of all the persecution and the suppression that Israel has suffered, but it hasn't brought Israel as a nation to the end of themselves yet. And when you look at the Middle East today and you scan the headlines, you realize that Israel is a nation is still trying to bring about blessing and peace by their own devices.
They have not come to themselves to the end of themselves yet. They're still by peace packs and summits and negotiations and.
Lining up with the United States and the allied forces and so on. They're still trying to bring about the blessing, but God will have to pass them through the circumstances of the tribulation to bring them to the point where they realize that they cannot do it.
They cannot do it in themselves. They cannot do it with the help of superpowers or other nations, friends and allies.
And I say it's blood flowing in the streets up to the horse's bridle that's going to bring them to that point. So difficult, so severe are going to be the circumstances that Israel passes through that it says that but for the elects sake, those days shall be shortened or else all flesh would perish. That's what it's going to take to bring them to individual, national and individual repentance. But I would like to just echo what Chuck said at the beginning or what he asked and what was answered. And that is.
As we embark on this chapter, we want to be very clear in our minds.
That when he speaks of the signs of his coming here, they asked him what are the signs of, of his coming when he speaks of this. They are signs in connection with his appearing. They are signs in connection with what is going to take place after the rapture. And if you'll just allow me to say a word on that, because I believe that one of the great confusions in Christian circles today is the Lord's coming for his Saints, what we refer to as the rapture.
And the Lord's coming with his Saints, what we refer to as the appearing, is often confused and sometimes actually mixed together so that it leads to all kinds of confusion even as to the responsibility and calling of the church and their hopes and so on in this dispensation. But the there are really in a sense, no signs of the Lord's coming for his Saints, the rapture.
00:25:00
Paul, when he said we which are alive and remain, he was speaking at that point of himself and the Thessalonian believers, they were looking for the Lord Jesus to come at the rapture at any moment. There's never been anything, brethren, that needed to take place for the Lord Jesus.
To give the shout and call us home. What we do see and have our signs connected with that time when prophetic events are going to begin to unfold again here in this world. And ultimately the Lord Jesus is going to appear back in this world for the blessing of Israel and for the blessing of the nations, for the blessing of this whole world. Now, we do see signs today, but are they signs connected with the rapture? Not really, no.
There are signs connected with what is going to take place after the church is gone.
If there were signs connected with the rapture, there would have been something down through the ages to delay in the minds of believers. The Lords coming. My Father was looking for the Lord Jesus to come at any moment. The early brethren were looking for the Lord Jesus to come at any moment. But I do believe this, brother, that the closer we get to the rapture, the more we begin to see signs of what are going to take place.
After, let me use a little illustration that's helped me. Suppose I decide I flew to Saint Louis this time. But suppose I'm driving to Saint Louis, as many of you did.
And we'll suppose that my wife has come ahead and she has agreed to meet me 20 miles outside the city limits of Saint Louis. Now, as I drive towards Saint Louis, what do I see? I see signs that I'm getting close to Saint Louis. The road signs say Saint Louis 100 miles, St. Louis, 50 miles. If I'm driving at night, I see the urban glow of the city in the sky as I approach.
Another sign might be that the traffic picks up, the lanes of the highway become more.
And all those kinds of things that the area becomes more built up. But what am I really looking forward to? I'm looking forward to meet my wife 10 miles out of Saint Louis. But a sign that says Saint Louis 50 miles encourages me that it's only 40 miles to the point where I'm going to meet my wife. The urban glow in the sky or the build up of traffic or lanes of Hwy. encourage me that I'm more. I'm getting closer to the point.
Where I'm going to meet my wife, although what I'm really don't forget the arch and the arch, yes, the arch, but the more I see of those signs, those are signs of not where I'm going to meet my wife. There are signs of what is coming. After I meet my wife, I'm going to pick her up and we're going to come to Saint Louis together.
But what I'm seeing are signs of what is beyond the point, the rest stop or the area where I'm going to meet my wife and brethren. That's in a sense helps us to understand. We see signs that encourage us as to the appearing of Christ and what is going to unfold after we're gone. But what are we really looking forward to? We're looking forward to the rapture, but don't those signs encourage us that the rapture must be very, very close?
Just as those Rd. signs and things encourage me that I'm getting close to that point, brethren.
When these things that we rehab here unfold, we're going to be with Christ. When the heavens open up to reveal Him and He comes back to reign and set up the Kingdom, we're going to be with Christ there. Something has to take place before now. Brethren, do we love His appearing? And I'll just make this one final comment. The Lord's coming for his Saints and the Lord's coming with his Saints really are, in a sense, so interconnected in Titus that they are part of our hope, looking for that blessed hope.
That's the moment when he's going to give the shout and call us away. But it doesn't stop there. And the glorious appearing. The two things are really what we ought to be anticipating and looking for seven years apart. I have another question.
In our prayer meetings we pray for China and India and Europe and though the whole world. Mostly we're thinking about Gentile, though gentile world.
I very seldom hear anyone in our prayer meetings, including myself, pray for Israel.
00:30:06
Pray for the Jews. But if we pray for the Jews, it would be with the thought that they might come now to see that Jesus is the true Messiah and receive him, and then they'll be a part of the church. But what should be our attitude? This is a legitimate question, and I don't know how to answer it exactly.
What should be our attitude towards this day when Israel will finally.
Be brought into its blessing. We know that that can't take place until after we're gone. Someone have a thought on that Till we come back too. And we'll come back to. Yeah, But I mean, we, you don't. In our prayer meetings, we hardly hear anyone pray for Israel. Is that wrong? I'm asking, is that wrong or is it right? As a nation, they've been set aside and said, say, under this mountain, be cast into the sea. And they are cast into the sea.
So as a nation, they're just like one of the other Gentile nations as far as the gospel is concerned. A Jew is saved the same way as a Frenchman or a German is today, and there is no distinct acknowledgment of them as a nation. They've been set aside. And so we do pray for Jews the way we pray for Frenchmen and Indians and Chinese, as you said. But nationally, somebody said, friends of Israel, you know, they're trying to breed a red heifer and they're trying to rebuild the temple and so on. An Orthodox Jew said, some friend, you are, you're going to build a temple so we can have sacrifices and trigger the great tribulation upon ourselves.
Because really, they're there in unbelief right now, and we preach the gospel and thankfully we do meet Jews that are saved.
But I was just thinking this in connection with this, our brother Don spoke and really Job is a picture, is a figure of the Jew and the tribulation that they're going to go through. And there's a lesson for us in it because in the book of Esther, you see that in an outward way, the Gentile bride did not adorn herself for the king. And so he takes up with the Jewish bride and with Israel. Everything is temporal. And we see in that a picture.
Just as I have a picture of my wife, we may have a picture of our wedding. It's a picture of a relationship that the world has never seen in a public way in this earth in connection with the church. And so he's going to deal with Israel so that if for 1000 years there will be a people on this earth that will display something of his thoughts towards men here on this earth.
And the appearing as our brother Jim referred to will bring a satisfaction to the heart of the believer because.
Man praise thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We go into a store and we hear the Lord profane. We see laws passed that are really contrary to the word of God. And the thought of the fact that the Lord is going to be honored in this world where he was cast out and rejected really does rejoice our hearts. And the rapture is not enough, if I may put it that way, to do that. But to see that the Lord will be honored here where he is dishonored really brings joy to the heart of the believer and the heart of God is really not going to be enough to God just to have.
His children home at the rapture in the Father's house. What God is really looking forward to is the full exaltation and vindication of His Son on the planet where they cast him out. But I would just say this too in connection with Chuck's question. I don't believe it's an intelligent prayer or in Christian character for a Christian to pray thy Kingdom come when the Lord Jesus taught the disciples to pray that.
He gave them a prayer that was suited to their condition and position at that time.
They were still under the Jewish order of things. The king had perhaps not been fully rejected then, and so he taught them as Jews to pray thy Kingdom come for us. In this dispensation. We're to pray for kings and all that are in authority, that we might live peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty, recognizing that in the interim of the King's rejection, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Most High, ruleth in the kingdoms of man and setteth up the basest of men in the kingdoms of men.
However, we are to love his appearing and I believe in our souls what we need to rejoice in.
And look forward to with anticipation is the fact that the Lord Jesus is going to have his rightful place here in this world. We go to work Oregon school. We hear the name of Christ taken in vain cursed in cursing. We see the Bible and prayer removed from the schools. We see that Christ is still rejected. We hear his name in vain as I say, but ought to rejoice our hearts brethren is to think there's a day when the Lord Jesus is going to have his rightful place and if.
00:35:20
There is open sin and rebellion if his name is openly taken in vain, he's going to to deal with that morning by morning that's loving is appearing, entering into the fact that there's a day coming when the heart of God and the heart of the Lord Jesus are going to be satisfied and rejoice when that blessed one has his rightful place. He has it in heaven today, but he does not have it on earth yet. And so we don't pray for the Kingdom that was a that was Jewish.
A Jewish prayer, but we are to love his appearing and look forward to it with anticipation. Is that right, Bob?
In a certain way where we are longing for his Kingdom to college, yes, and I would say Chuck verse that's I hear quoted quite often about praying for the Jewish people is pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
We know that there cannot be peace there until they recognize the Prince of Peace, until they repent of their terrible sin of having rejected him so.
In a certain sense, we know that it's going to take to the end of the Tribulation before there's peace in Jerusalem. There cannot be until that time. So really that we can't pray exactly for the peace of Jerusalem right now, but we can pray for that. People like you say pray for the gospel going out to those people that they would repent. But I think it is.
Important to see that. I'd like to say too that in this.
Question of the Lord's coming to take us home. The Rapture Scripture speaks.
Quite seldom about it. It's something that's revealed in the New Testament. It is not spoken of at all in the Old Testament. The rapture does not appear in this chapter. Sometimes where one is taking another left is quoted as the rapture. That is not the rapture. That is the appearing when he comes and roots out, and those that are taken are taken away in judgment.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. But on the other hand, the appearing.
Is something that Scripture probably speaks more about than any other.
Time in the history of this world. The Old Testament is full of it. Enoch knew about it.
And Scripture is full of it. And I think it's because, brethren.
Really thinking about it, I don't think in the whole history of this world there's going to be a time from the creation to the end of this world when there will be a greater display of power and glory than when Jesus comes again to reign with his Saints. I think that's going to be the vastest display of power and glory and that interests us.
As believers in the Lord Jesus, we look forward to that day. And as you said, Jim.
We wait not only for that blessed hope, the rapture, but we also wait for the glorious appearing or the appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. God is going to glorify his Son. He's going to make Him number one man in the whole universe, and it's going to be outwardly evident. Every eye shall see him.
Tremendous to think, brethren, that we're going to be eyewitnesses of that moment. Tremendous.
Read the last verse in the New Testament.
To the last two verses, he which testified this Revelation 22.
He which testifieth these things saith, This is the Lord speaking. Surely I come quickly. Amen. What's the response? Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Now we're waiting for Him to come for us to take us home. But are we not waiting for Him to come back to set up His Kingdom? Could that not embrace both?
00:40:02
That Brother Chuck, I've heard people say, and I think what you say is helpful because I've heard people say, well, why should I be interested in prophecy or what's going to unfold after the Rapture? It really doesn't affect us, but it does affect us. We are going to be eyewitnesses of this. We're going to have a part when he finally comes back to administer the Kingdom. Be thou over 5 cities, be thou over 10 cities. We're going to have a part in that administration.
We're going to stand with the Lord Jesus as his, as his bride and as his wife, as the Church of God. And so it does. Let me use another illustration. I was in business for many years and we'll suppose that I come home from the office and I say to my wife in those days, and I said to my wife, you know, we're going to make some changes at the office. I remember when we moved our location and well, suppose I came home and said, now, Faye, we're going to move our location and we're going to be more central and downtown. And I think it's.
A better location, we have a bigger shop behind and so on. And we'll suppose my wife held up her hands and said, now Jim.
I'm not interested in what goes on in the office. My sphere is the home here. And I'm just interested that you come home at 6:00 every night and we enjoy time together and you help with the children and you supply the needs and you bring the paycheck home. And that's my interest in my sphere.
Now, how would I feel? Wouldn't I feel very disappointed? Why? I'd say what happens at the office does ultimately affect what happens at home. No. When I came home from the office and discussed things, my wife was very interested in what went on at the office. And brethren, it's true that we are going to view things from a heavenly perspective in that day as the bride of Christ, as his wife, but it is going to affect us.
And if it has to do with God's interests and the full exaltation of his Son, if it has to do with the Lord Jesus coming back and having his rightful place.
On this globe where they spit in His face and cast Him out, then oughtened it to interest us as well. But will you let me just say this too? And I don't want to belabor something, but brethren, I believe it's important because I've heard Christians say too. Now, isn't it interesting to see prophetic events unfolding today? Brethren? God, as it were, has His finger on the prophetic clock. The hands of the prophetic clock. The prophetic clock has stopped for the time being.
God in the this interim is calling out a heavenly people for himself. And what we see, as we said earlier, are signs that lead to when the prophetic clock will start ticking again. But the prophetic clock is not ticking today. God, I say, is calling out a heavenly people. Another illustration. Suppose we go to A to a Opera House. We'll say for the sake of illustration.
And we're going to see a production now as we sit in the Opera House.
We see things that.
Indicate that the production, the time for the production to begin, is getting close. The orchestra begins to tune their instruments in the orchestra pit. You hear a hustle and bustle behind the curtain. At the last minute. The house lights are dim. But you wouldn't say the production began until the curtain went up. And so, brethren, we're probably right at the point where the house lights are dimmed now.
There on the eve of the Lord's return. But the things are not going to begin to unfold prophetically on this earth until the church goes up. Just like the curtain going up and then the production begins. You see signs that it's going to begin, but not until we go up will prophetic events begin to unfold. We are not seeing prophecy unfold today on the in this earth.
They already are in the Kingdom, aren't we? But the Kingdom today, if you look at Matthew chapter 13, there's a word used in connection with the Kingdom that shows the character of it now.
Matthew chapter 13 and verse 11 it says.
He answered and said unto them, That's his disciples, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven. The Kingdom is today in mystery. The king is absent, is rejected, and his subjects, those that recognize his authority, are often persecuted and killed. The Kingdom is in mystery, but we are already part of that Kingdom.
00:45:13
There's another word that's used in connection with it that I think helps to see in Revelation chapter one.
Revelation chapter one and verse 9 says I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the Kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, there's three words that relate to Jesus Christ there. Not only the Kingdom, but tribulation and patience. That's the character of the Kingdom today.
But when Jesus comes again, it's going to have the character of power and glory, and that's what we're talking about in this chapter.
The burden was expressed that moral lessons would be drawn from this. It was just thinking as the Lord spoke about the temple and not one stone would be left upon another. I believe there is a moral lesson that we can draw from this and that in the disciples expectation was the immediate appearance of the Kingdom, and the Lord was just opening up to their understanding that that was not to be so. But as believers in this dispensation we may be looking for something great and permanent to be established now.
And it is not to be.
And you look at all of the Lord's faithful ministry, and how many were there believers at the end of that 500 we read in First Corinthians 15. And of that 500, how many were waiting in that upper room at Pentecost? 120 A small minority, 1/4 of them.
And so we're not to expect people say, well, the Lord will come when we've evangelized the world. Well, I believe that the Great Commission was accomplished in the days of the apostles and those who know anything about India or China or the far reaches of the earth. There's evidence that the gospel was very much gone out in the days of the apostles. We're not looking for the evangelization of the world for the Lord to come. We're not looking for the building of something because in an outward way, everything is going to be broken down.
And we may become very disappointed if we go back to our assembly where there were once 100 and now there's only 20, or maybe there's down to two or three. And we what we're seeing in an outward way is a breakdown. But we realize when we read Peter that God is doing a work. He's building a temple. There's no flaws in the work that God is doing, and it's going to be complete when the last stone is added. But in an outward way, there's a breakdown. And then there's a second thing that Christians become very occupied with.
Is wars and rumors of wars, how many believers have gotten taken up with Y2K or something going to happen? And they get buying freeze dried chicken and distilled water and stocking it up in their basements and becoming carried away in every wind of doctrine and terrified by what is happening and the Lord. Somebody once said when all this was Y2K business was going on, He said the Lord was asleep in the boat and we should be too.
There is a time at which we should be concerned about things and there are times about things about which we ought not to be concerned. And so the Lord tells them, like the apostle, he said, you know, he said after my departure, grievous wolves are going to come in. But what did they weep about? That they would see Pauls face no more. They weren't weeping about the grievous wolves coming in. And here the Lord is warning them that false Christs were going to come, and his man concerned about false doctrine and false Christs.
He's concerned about wars and rumors of wars.
And he's gotten taken up with things and so much so that Christians are involved in becoming involved in politics and trying to set the world straight. And what ought to be really our concern and the burden of our hearts is the fact is, as we've said, that this is not, we're living in the foreshadowing of these things, but these things are happening in our day that we are just being inundated with false doctrine and false representations of Christ. And that's what ought to concern us, not the wars and rumors of wars and the price of oil and what's going to happen to the price of gold.
We hate to be intelligent bystanders, but not overwhelmed by what's going on. And I believe the way we can be intelligent bystanders as to world events and what's going on and yet not overwhelmed is to realize the truth of a chapter like this. And that is that there is one who's in full control. The Lord Jesus speaks of these events prophetically. He know. He knows what's going to unfold. He knows what's happening Today I said at 9:11, there's no surprises with God.
00:50:20
The United States was surprised, the world was shocked, was God shocked? God had a perfect timetable. God allowed man only to go so far. Is that a comfort to us? Yes. We we're concerned. We need to walk circumspectly and carefully in the day in which we live and have discernment of the times. But brethren, we don't need to be overwhelmed. The most high rule within the kingdoms of men, and there's a day that's behind the scenes and there's a day coming when he's going to rule outwardly.
I enjoy the thought that Jim had early on about meeting his wife. I'm sure that when they make plans as such that it was a plan precisely He knew when to expect her, where to expect her, but we find the word of God. You just talked for us, doesn't it? It's written for our learning is written for our comforts too. So we see all these is written for us. We find that from the very early as our brother. I think brother Bob mentioned how the word of God through our Old Testament.
Tells us the appearing in fact, as we go through the word of God, we find that he gives us this overall framework of what things are to happen. We'll find perhaps let's turn to just a couple of quick example here. Let's go to Genesis chapter 8.
Place that we more likely wouldn't turn to, to look at that as the sign of perhaps of an out of an outline of what is to come. Genesis chapter 8 when we know this chapter as the chapter about the flood and about the ark. Just for times sake, I'm going to read a couple of verses here. Genesis 8 verse four and the ark rested in the seventh month.
On the 17th day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat. Now one more verse, verse 13. And it came to pass in the 600 and 601St year. Now here's the portion of my heart. And in the first month, the first day of the month, the water dried up from off the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the art and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dried.
We read it casual, it will say, well, what is that got to deal with prophetic pictures here. Well, we find that the 17th day of the month we were going to live it Chapter 23 that would coincide with the feast of the first fruit. It speaks of resurrection. Well prior to this scene was death was is isn't it death and resurrection has to come into play. And then at the end of the second portion that we ran off the first month, the first day. Well, we matched that up with the book of Leviticus.
Will find us the Feast of the Trumpet. The Feast of the Trumpet tells us that how Israel is going to be awakening if we were to go through the 70s, which we won't have time to go through. We see that death and resurrection comes in. Then we see that after resurrection there was the Feast of weeks, a picture of the church being formed 50 days after, but more is the 7th Sabbath and a moral after. Well there's a picture of the church.
But the Church is really in for a short while, and then after that period would be the Jews being restored. We see the feasts of the first of the Trumpet, and then the Feast of the Tabernacle of the Atonement, and then the Feast of the Tabernacles speak of how the Jews being brought back into blessings in the future deed. The Lord tells us that throughout His word. Now we're here here in our chapter that we have another picture here.
Here some of us perhaps look at this as the the last week that Daniel mentioned, the 70th week.
Now, if I may, just for I don't profess to know it well, I'd like to turn to Daniel Chapter 9. Actually, before we do, let's go back to the chapter. Just read a couple of verses there since we weren't Matthew chapter 24, Matthew 24, just as a quick division of the chapter. I think some already commented on from verse three on, or rather verse four, when the Lord told them to take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ.
00:55:00
And shall deceive many what that I believe is the beginning of that first half of that last week. And then that's what we hear about all these wars, rumors of wars. And then in verse 21, I believe this great tribulation would be approximately the middle of that week and then the events after. Now let's turn to Daniel Chapter 9.
As Jim mentioned earlier on how the prophetic flock stopped as if it were.
Daniel, he talked about 70 weeks, so let's just read a few verses here.
Verse 24.
70 weeks are determined upon Thy people and upon the holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision, the prophecy, and to anoint the Holy One. We know that Daniel had that vision, and he was given that vision to know there were 70 weeks upon his people.
Those following verses in the chapter actually go into it in detail of what these 70 weeks were. Now just very briefly we'll see this verse 25 know therefore and understand you know I enjoy that portion. Is that not just to know it we know it. It says no no, therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to.
Build Jerusalem.
Unto the Messiah, the Prince shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks. These are the weeks of years. There were seven and then three score would be 60, and then two more weeks, 62 weeks. So there's a 7 weeks and then a 62 weeks. That gives us the 69 weeks. Now we won't have time. It is kind of hard to explain this with our chalkboard, but I'll mention it very briefly if you were to take this restoring.
To build Jerusalem, I believe that's Nehemiah chapter 2. That was the time of 445 BC. Some has it at 455, but I believe 445 is the correct thought. If you take the number of days into that. And by the way, Scripture speaks of years as 360 days. That's where a lot of mistakes are made, is 30 days a year from the prophetic side. And what you have to do is to take the 30 days a month, I should say 360 days a year.
And convert it back to our time of 365 and 1/4 day. You'll find that that seven weeks will coincide quite nicely to the book of Malachi, which is around 397 BC. And then the 62 weeks, if you go through the numbers, you'll find that it'll be from the time that our blessed Savior was cut off on the cross. And there is a man named, I forget his name. Anderson, I believe is his name. He did the calculation.
And they had it right to the day that the Lord Jesus entered into Jerusalem 65 weeks from the word of God fulfilled precisely that clock stopped as if it were for one more week for a while. One more week is to start. What is that one week? Well, let's look at verse 27. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, or when this man starts for that one week.
In the midst of the week he shall cast the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abomination he shall make it desolate, and so on. I spent a lot of time here. I would rather now let someone else go into the chapter to explain this. The beginning of the week what happens, and then in the middle of the week what happened.
I believe that there's three things two in our chapter here that he mentions nation rising against nation, pestilences and earthquakes, 3 distractions that he wanted the disciples to avoid. I believe we could summarize them in three ways. There are three things that commonly are distracting Christians is the wars and the politics of wars and God raises up a nation and he sets down a nation. You know when Mr. Darby wrote that him this world is a wilderness wide. We have nothing to seek or to choose.
I had a stamp that my grand came from my grandfather and it showed England controlled everything that England controlled in the world was in red and they controlled half the world. Well, the Lord was finished with England and he picked up another nation and we're thankful. I can say this is living north of the border, that God has raised up a nation and he's used it as an instrument for peace and security in the world, for his people to allow free travel of the gospel and so on. And so God does this. We don't need to occupy ourselves with this question.
01:00:25
And the wars in this world. Pestilences. Man thinks that he's going to cure disease.
And I always remember what Clem Buchanan said at Regina conference 19 1/2 years ago, he said.
If the doctor tells you don't eat cabbage, don't eat it. And that sounds like such a simple statement, but I think what he was addressing was his preoccupation with Christians about what they eat and what they don't eat and so on. There are going to be pestilences and increasing pestilences in the world, and we're not to become occupied with it. I don't mean that we shouldn't be wise and we shouldn't conduct ourselves in a healthy way, but this world is seeking deliverance from something that is not. It is not going to see deliverance from.
Until the Son of Man appears.
And so we read in Isaiah 55, and I want to say this reverently, the dogs are going to be happy to see the coming of the Lord.
The lower creation are going to be happy to see the coming and the manifestation of the sons of God because they're groaning right now. And so if we've got involved ourselves in politics, we wouldn't know whether to be in the Green Party or where we would be because we realize that man has hurt the earth. He has, but there will be no deliverance for the earth, for the global warming or anything else until the Son of Man appears. And then there was a third thing. There was natural disasters. And so.
Man is occupied with the effects, as I say that man has had on the environment and the natural disasters and preventing them. But there will be no God is speaking through these things and so we don't need to become preoccupied with them, but what ought to preoccupy us is what the Lord is warning the disciples to be occupied with. As we see this now, I realize I'm applying this to ourselves because as we've said, we're seeing the foreshadow, we're seeing the the Arch of Saint Louis.
Long before we see the city of I may put it this way, where we're seeing these things unfolding and we're in a certain sense living in the the preparation for these things. And so we can apply these things to ourselves.
In.
Thought Bob.
That's alright, we can go on next time.
Praises the sweetest sound.
That every story.
All just started made just as strong.
Our fear.
10/3.
Then to the slave.
Take everything.
Today.
Let's have a look at all the.
Gospel 1
Gospel—Bob Thonney
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Let's start our meeting tonight with #23 on our hymn sheet.
Behold, behold the Lamb of God.
On the cross.
For us, he shed his precious blood on the cross.
O hear the overwhelming cry, Eli.
Lama Sabachthani.
Draw near and see.
The Savior die on the cross #23.
There's song #8.
Shall we gather at his coming when the dead in Christ arise?
Shall we hear the Savior summoned to God's home beyond the skies?
Ere the day of Jesus coming, seek his pardon free to know be your stains of sin is scarlet, He will wash you white as snow #8.
00:05:01
Shall we get ahead and take you down and tell your daughter's eyes?
It will never die.
It's glorious. It's glorious.
Grasp, it's saying inside of the sky.
It was in the same.
Day near the cross of God name.
And in the same.
When no one said.
His glory.
Grace.
When I do it, I want to know I'm very what you're doing.
Let's turn in our Bibles to John's Gospel, chapter 14.
Beginning with verse one.
The Lord Jesus speaking.
And here's what he says. Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you.
I will come again.
And receive you unto myself, that where I am.
There ye may be also, and whether I go, you know, and the way you know.
Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?
Verse 6.
Listen to me, one of the most precious verses in Scripture, Jesus saith unto him.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
00:10:05
It's impressed me, the simplicity.
Of Scripture.
And the importance, the absoluteness.
Of Holy Scripture when it speaks.
It is final, there is no appeal.
Beyond what Scripture says.
The Lord Jesus said in John 17.
Sanctify them by Thy truth. Thy word is truth. We have in our hands a book.
That is truth.
Absolutely.
The Lord Jesus himself said.
I am the way, the truth.
And the life no man cometh to the Father, but by me, I suggest.
That if, as people sometimes say, the Lord Jesus was only.
A good teacher.
This is the.
Worst deceit possible. It cannot be that he be just a mere good teacher. He is the full embodiment of all that is truth.
In the 8th chapter of this gospel, they ask him, Who are you? He said all that I say unto you.
He was everything he said. He is the truth.
Remember, up in the Maritime provinces they have years ago when I was up there, a little chorus for the children. Without the way, there is no going. Without the truth, there is no knowing. Without the life, there is no growing.
The Lord Jesus is the truth and the reason I.
Want to emphasize this is that I see in the culture we live in.
An undermining of what is truth.
We live in a culture where humanism.
Makes man the center of his world.
God. Oh, you want to talk about God? OK, we can talk about God, but he's somewhere out there. I'm the one that determines my life. I make the decisions. I do what I want. And don't you dare judge me because my idea is just as good as yours. That's humanism.
That's relativism and that's undermining, and I can see it sometimes in young people, even though they're brought up in Christian homes, they've never been brought to grasp for themselves what is the truth. Yes, you know it in your head.
But you haven't grasped it for your own self and your own soul.
Thank God if you've been taught the truth of God in your homes.
It's a valuable heritage to have, but the time comes when you.
Must lay hold of it for yourself, it scares me.
When I stand up here in the United States and I look around the room, I know pretty well everybody here.
Is there somebody here that hasn't heard the gospel? I don't think there is anybody that hasn't heard the gospel before.
But Satan is a liar.
And Satan is undermining the truth of God in our culture.
And I meet up with young people sometimes, and talking to them, they think.
They've got one on God. They think they're going to tell God something.
Remember in the youth village we go to to preach the gospel, one young fellow said.
I'm mad at God.
He's given me a bum deal in life.
00:15:00
My family here I am locked up.
I said to him, young man, if you're going to get mad at somebody, you'd better pick on somebody your own size.
Because he's quite a bit bigger than you.
But I say, if you're going to judge God, you think you know better than God. That means you must know more than God does. And so I said to him, of all the information that is out there, how much do you know?
Well, some of these kids, they haven't learned a whole lot yet, but he said. I think I probably know about 20% of everything.
Who? I said. You're talking about me. I think I'd put .00001 somewhere out there.
But I'll grant you, you've got 20% you're looking through this little hole, 20% you're seeing, and with that knowledge you think you can judge a God who knows everything.
You are in pretty dangerous position to do that.
But that's where our culture has undermined our young people.
And if you do not have a basis for truth, if you do not know.
What is absolute? You know what you are, what Scripture calls.
Lost just like being in a ship on the sea, going full till the head but without any rudder at all. You have no clue which direction you're going.
You're lost.
You're lost.
You've got to have a point of reference.
The point of reference that I suggest.
That I have found that really carries weight.
Is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who said I am the way the truth? He didn't say I am a truth or a way. I am the truth the way.
That would be the most the height of presumption to say that if he wasn't, and I suggest either you have to accept him for who he says he is or you reject him totally.
Those are the only two options.
Oh, how wonderful it is to know something that is absolute. Sometimes people say, how do you know you're right?
I say, look, I am not the measuring stick on what's right and what's wrong, but there is a measuring stick, there is a standard, and that standard is absolute.
Again, I say, and I hope I can make it clear for dear young people.
Although sometimes I wonder sometimes if the older ones have it clear as well.
That if we're going to speak with clarity and authority.
We must start with something that is absolute.
I sometimes give a simple illustration, perhaps will help.
I'm going to point up and I say this direction is up.
Some young person can come up here and prove me to be wrong.
You're going to say to me, you know, Mr. that direction on the other side of the earth is down.
Oh.
How could he prove me wrong? I thought that was right. It's because I'm reasoning from myself.
I'm reasoning from something that is relative. I am relative in my position on Earth, in my relationships with others, and so if I begin with something that's relative, I can't come out with something conclusive. If I want to get something conclusive, I must start with that which is absolute.
And I find that absolute in God.
And in his word, I don't know of anything else in Scripture that is.
That is absolute in the fullest sense of the word God.
00:20:02
And his word, thank God, we have the means to know for sure what is right and what is wrong. Let's go back to the first chapter of this gospel, John's gospel chapter one.
And we want to read 2 verses here, chapter one and verse 14.
The word.
That is the title.
The Lord Jesus takes in verse one.
The Word is the full expression of all that God is.
I have a thought in my mind. I want to communicate that thought to you. How do I do that? I use words to communicate what you're thinking, what I'm thinking, and then you know what I'm thinking. God is so infinite, is eternal in his being, and he wanted to communicate with this creature, man, and so he sent the word of God into this world.
And the Lord Jesus is the full expression of all that God is. You want to know God?
Get to know Jesus. You will know what kind of a God we have.
By knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is.
The Word of God and in verse 14 it says the word.
Was made flesh. In verse one it says the word was God. But now we find something further.
The Word was made or became flesh, and dwelt among us.
And we beheld His glory, the glories of the only Begotten of the Father.
Full of grace and truth. Isn't that beautiful?
Full of grace and truth.
God is light and God is love. Grace is the manifestation of the fact that God is love.
Light or the truth is the manifestation that God is light.
And the Lord Jesus was the perfect.
Manifestation of the fact that God is light.
And God is love, and it's beautiful to trace His pathway here in this world, how he met up with different ones and how He was perfectly balanced in his dealing with souls. I confess to you, I get unbalanced. Sometimes I get way over to one side, sometimes way over to the other side.
That's why it's good to have Christian brothers to kind of help you keep the balance once in a while. But the Lord Jesus didn't need that. He was completely perfect in all his ways. And as he went about in his earthly pilgrimage, he manifested those two things, grace and truth.
Verse 17 says the law was given by Moses.
But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Beautiful. Think of that woman in John chapter 4. We're not going to go to all these places we want to talk about but.
We'll just briefly talk about them. There was a woman in Samaria. Samaria was the province above Judea where Jerusalem was located.
And one day the Lord in his journeys went through.
This place and there was a well outside the city. And he sat down.
Wearied with his journey. Isn't that amazing?
The eternal God.
Wearied with his journey, what wearied him? I'm sure it was to see poor people so lost in their sins.
There he sat, and here comes a woman.
With her water pot, fill it up. She'd come day after day after day. She didn't know who that is. It's sitting there.
And he says give me to drink.
She says.
What's this? Jewish people don't talk to Samaritan people?
And she forgot all about giving him a drink, but she gets talking about their religion.
00:25:04
And about Jacob, who had given them the well there and.
She said, are you greater than our father Jacob? He said, Woman, whoever drinks of this well is going to thirst again.
Young people, are you drinking at the wells of this world? Let me guarantee you, you are going to thirst again.
But whosoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never.
But the water that I will give him will be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Her heart was won, she says, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not neither come hit her to draw.
And.
She appreciated the grace that was shown there, but truth enters into the picture too. And so he says to her, go call your husband and come here.
She thought she could just cover it all up.
She said I don't have a husband. That's what you kind of call 1/2 truth.
When you want to cover something up, you just don't tell the whole story, you just tell 1/2 truth.
But she didn't know who in whose presence she was. She was in the presence of someone who knew absolutely every detail of her life. You know, that's the way it is too. You can fool me then. A lot of people have fooled me, and I suppose there will be more that fooled me.
But there's a God who has his eye on you right now. He knows every detail of your life. You cannot escape his eye.
Says in Hebrews chapter 4, All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
So he says to this poor woman of Samaria, he says you have well spoken, I have no husband because you've had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband. You said that, right?
Immediately he recognized. She recognized.
Here's somebody that knows everything about me. I can't hide anything here. You know what? You've got to come to that point too. Sometimes young people, children, think they can hide things from their folks. You think that way. If you're doing stuff you know you shouldn't do, you're trying to hide it from your folks. I don't know if you know God yet, because the God we're talking about is a God and knows absolutely everything, and everything has got to come out into the blazing light of His presence.
There is no way you can hide from him.
Thank God she accepted she did not run away from this one. You know you don't run away from God.
He doesn't want to condemn you. He didn't come for that purpose. He came to save.
And so she found salvation. She went back, she left her water pot. She forgot all about that well, that water there and that well. She went back into the city. She said to those men of that city, Perhaps some of the men should send with. Come see, a man had told me everything I ever did.
Was she scared of him? No, I love that.
Full of grace and truth. No compromise with truth. But at the same time.
Full of grace, beautiful. Later on in this same gospel, we find another woman who was brought to the Lord Jesus in the temple.
Pharisees.
Were always picking.
At points that Jesus had said to try to find a flaw, the.
So that they could catch him. And they thought one day they had him and they.
Brought a woman and they said this woman was taken in adultery in the very act.
Hypocrites. Why didn't they bring the man too? Because the very act there had to be a man involved too.
They wanted to condemn her and they said Moses and the Law said we should stone this woman. They knew that Jesus preached forgiveness of sins. They thought they had him in a hard spot and that they would confound him there. The Lord Jesus didn't answer. He stooped down on the ground and wrote.
00:30:23
You look at Jeremiah, I think it's chapter 17. You'll find that those that forsake thee will be written in the earth. Some have suggested perhaps they wrote the names of those men that were accusing him.
Cursing this woman, at any rate, he finally stands up and they keep asking and he just says one word. He says he that is without sin among you let him cast the first stone at her. Was what she had done a serious thing? It certainly was extremely serious sin. Adultery is.
But he had not come to condemn. He had come to save.
And he didn't make light of that, that sin that she had committed.
But he Stoops down and starts right in again, and they all, one by one, start going out. They cannot bear the light of the presence of that one that was their writing in the earth.
And when he gets up again, it's only him.
And that woman standing there, you know there was one there without any sin.
He did have the right to cast a stone at her, but he had not come for that purpose.
He had come to save and he says woman where is thine accusers? No one condemned you said no one Lord, she says go and sin no more.
Grace and truth.
One more.
Story that we have in the Gospel of Luke that I want to tell you when they led Jesus out of the city of Jerusalem.
To the hill of Golgotha.
And now they stretched out his hands, and they nailed him to the cross.
His head was crowned with thorns. His feet were nailed there too.
There he hung from 9:00 AM to 12:00.
Noon. He died at 3:00 PM.
But between 12 noon and 3:00 PM.
Everything.
Was dark, the scripture tells us.
Nobody could see what was taken place there on Mount Calvary.
Those three hours.
He's full of grace and truth. If he's going to say to that poor woman, neither do I condemn you.
Somebody's got to pay for what she did.
When they hung Jesus up there, they hung two other men up there with him, one on either side.
Thieves.
Society had come to the decision not to let them live any longer.
And they were being executed by crucifixion too.
And they're both at first revealing Jesus.
But.
1 reflected evidently.
Had noticed the difference, it says. When he was reviled, he reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not imagine the pain when they pounded those nails through his hands. Tried to imagine it. I don't think I can hardly understand it. I've stepped on a nail once in a while my life and it's gone into my foot.
It's tremendously painful. Of course I get it off of that nail as fast as I possibly can, but.
To be hung on nails through your hands and feet. To hang there.
Hour after hour.
And that one thief must have looked at him and said there's something different about this man.
And he finally rebuked his companion on the other side, and he said this man has done nothing amiss. He said, don't you fear God.
00:35:05
We're getting close to the end, we're going to die and we're going to go to meet our maker.
Give account to him. Don't you fear God?
Young people.
Do you fear God?
It's easy to say yeah, yeah, sure. I fear God.
Your actions show if you fear God.
I've told the story before, but.
Some time ago in Bolivia, I was on the street of a city called Tupisa.
The South.
And I notice a young man who I've gotten to know.
Years before.
Who had come to Sunday school? I'm sure he'd learned the verses.
Perhaps made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus.
But he was coming down the street. I don't think he saw me, but I was coming down the street. He was smoking a cigarette.
And so when he got close, I stepped out to say hello to him.
Before he put out his hands to shake hands, he threw down the cigarette and stamped on it. I said, what would you do that for?
It wasn't even half finished. You know why he did it for her? Because he saw me. I say I'm not going to take off my belt and give it to you.
Why do you fear me if you don't fear God?
You know, sometimes the way you act when nobody else is watching is the major.
Of how much you fear God.
Do you fear God?
Do you realize his eyes on you?
Everything you've said, everything you've done is going to come out and that day.
Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment, it says.
Oh, it's important to realize you have to do with God. You don't have to do with the brethren necessarily.
We're talking about salvation now. You've got to do with God, and you might be.
Doing everything just right so that nobody thinks you're out of line.
But if you're not right with God, you are not right with anybody.
Think about it.
Anyhow, this thief on this side of the Lord Jesus, well, we don't know exactly which side it was, but one side, the Lord Jesus.
Then address the Lord Jesus and he said, Lord, Remember Me when you come into your Kingdom. You know, we've been talking about the Kingdom today and when Jesus is going to come to establish his Kingdom in this world.
He hasn't come yet.
That would have been waiting about 2000 years at least.
But you know what Jesus said to him? This to me is so wonderful today.
You will be with me in paradise.
Isn't that wonderful?
Did that cost him something to say that?
You know what it cost him terribly. Does God let thieves into heaven?
How could God be just and let a thief into heaven?
You know how?
Because after the Lord Jesus said that.
It got dark.
And there was Jesus hanging on that cross and in those hours of darkness.
God took the load of that thief's sins.
And laid them on Jesus.
And God punished.
Jesus for every single one of those sins. When I look at those three hours of darkness and realize that God laid on him, as Scripture says, the iniquity of us all and the storm of divine judgment that broke on Jesus in all its fury, hung there without one complaint for three hours.
Well, they're billows, and storm of God's judgment rolled over him.
No complaint, absolutely no complaint during those three hours until the very end. And he cries, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
00:40:12
In the moment of his deepest need, God himself turned his back on Jesus.
O the awfulness of what Jesus paid, He paid the price in full.
A repentant thief can go right into the paradise of God.
Because Jesus paid it all on that cross.
Before he died, he cried at his finish.
All the judgment that was against me as a guilty Sinner.
It's gone. It's paid for in full by the Lord Jesus.
And God showed he accepted the payment made by raising him from the dead.
It was a moment of truth.
On that cross, no sin will ever get into that.
Heavenly City, Absolutely impossible to even suggest.
That it could would call in question God's holy character? Impossible.
Every sin that has ever been committed on the face of planet earth must receive it's just judgment from the hand of God Himself.
And that's what happened when Jesus died on that cross.
After Jesus was dead.
Soldiers came and broke the legs of these two thieves.
To dispatch them.
And they came to Jesus.
It's dead already.
They thrust the spear into his side.
And out flowed blood and water.
Awfulness of the cost of our redemption, paid in full by the blood of the Son of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh what a story, Oh what grace, oh what truth perfectly combined in that blessed person. The Lord Jesus didn't stay dead, He was raised by the glory of the Father. And God didn't quit raising Jesus until Jesus now as a man, occupies the highest place in the universe.
Oh, what a story we have now we can tell everyone present here.
There is full free salvation to everyone.
Who repents of his sins and believes?
In Jesus, where do you stand in relation to God?
What concerns me is that.
There are perhaps those present here tonight and I'm not the one that can point them out who they are.
But if the Lord Jesus.
In his twelve disciples, one was a traitor, one was false.
Here we have, I don't know how many we have here tonight, maybe 200 people.
How many?
Are here without having really straightened the accounts with God.
You can fool me, you can't fool God. I plead with you to get it straight tonight, if you haven't yet. Don't try to ignore the issues. The truth must come out. You've got to face it. There is no way of avoiding it.
And what concerns me deeply is to see.
In our culture, because of humanism and relativism.
The loss of the ability to discern between.
Good and evil.
Young people spend time sitting in front of the TV.
And they see program some kind of.
A story.
That is told and then on the other side they see the news.
00:45:04
One side there's killing and the other side there's killing, and they've come to the point now where they don't distinguish what's true and what's false. It's all kind of a haze.
It's scary where this country is going.
And I'd like to turn to a few verses that relate to this in Romans chapter one first of all.
Romans chapter one.
Verse 18.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.
Against all ungodliness and.
Unrighteousness of men. Notice this last expression.
Who hold the truth in unrighteousness?
Think about that.
They hold the truth.
In unrighteousness, what does that mean?
They have a knowledge of it.
In their heads, but they're not living by that standard.
And what happens?
Verse 19. That which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them.
For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and godheads, so that they are without excuse.
Nobody, when they stand at the judgment throne in the future day, is going to have an excuse to give to God.
They haven't had the testimony of the gospel we're preaching here tonight.
There's savages in the jungle of South America still.
The jungles of New Guinea, perhaps other parts of the world that have not heard the gospel? What about them?
God is just and they have the testimony of creation, but you have a testimony that is far.
Greater you have the word of God in your hands. You have the gospel of Jesus Christ preached to you.
You are far more responsible, so it says.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. They thought, oh, we know the truth, we know the truth, we have the truth.
But they held it in unrighteousness.
Change the glory of the uncorruptible God.
Into an image may like to corruptible man.
You know that's the worst idolatry possible. Where, man?
Leaves the worship of the uncorruptible God.
And really worships himself, makes himself the center of his world.
Are you and I guilty of doing that?
I can say for myself, sometimes I see.
The effects of that kind of thinking in my life, and it challenges me to.
Challenge myself as to where I really stand in this picture.
So he changes the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man.
And notice the progression now to birds. Animals. He reverts to birds.
And four footed beasts. Now you're coming down to earth. Birds at least fly.
And creeping things, you get down closer and closer to Earth. There's a degeneration.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.
Now notice this verse 25 Who changed the truth?
Of God into a lie. First they held the truth in unrighteousness. Now they say that's no longer convenient to hold the truth are going to change it now into a lie and they have no way of distinguishing what's true and what's false. That's where this culture that we're part of is going.
Oh, how important it is to have the truth of God in its simplicity before our souls.
00:50:02
The truth is not a philosophy. The truth is not a.
Whole set of doctrines that you've got to understand the truth.
Is a living person the Lord Jesus Christ?
The Son of God, the creator of the universe, he said. I am the way, the truth and the life.
Another verse going back to John's Gospel, chapter 18.
The end of this gospel, the Lord Jesus.
Is taken before Pilate to be examined.
And Pilate says to Jesus, verse 37 There Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king? Then Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness.
Unto the truth.
Everyone, that is of the truth.
Heareth my voice.
Are you listening, young people, children, are you listening?
Kind of hard to listen and talk at the same time, isn't it? Some people maybe can do it, but I find it rather hard.
Are you listening? I don't mind if you don't listen to me.
But it is of supreme importance that you listen to him here.
And your soul shall live. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Oh, how important it is to listen to him. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. Are you hearing?
Sometimes I see people sitting in gospel meetings and they're very respectfully sitting there, but I can see by the attitude on their face they're really not listening at all.
Has Salem, it is to not listen to the voice of the Son of God.
Pilate saith unto him, verse 38, What is truth?
And he went. And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews. He didn't even wait for the answer. He really wasn't interested in the truth.
And that's the relativism of the day we live in. What is truth?
Don't you think you can judge me? My idea is just as good as yours. Who do you think you are?
That is the attitude of the day we live in. And if it is a question of just your idea against mine, you're right. But it's not a question of your idea against mine. It's a question of someone who said.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me it's of vital importance.
That you face the truth of God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. You may try to ignore it here in this life, but I guarantee you, you are going to come face to face with Jesus sooner or later. There is no way you can avoid him.
Know those that reject to deal with him in this life.
Will die in their sins and they will be resurrected.
On that last day, the resurrection of condemnation.
There will be a great white throne standing in space because.
Heaven and earth will have passed away.
And there the dead are.
Small and great, they're still called dead even though they're resurrected.
There they stand, spirit, soul and body. Before that were eight white throne. And who is it that sits on that throne? No question. But at that it will be the same one who died on the cross.
To save us from our sins, the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has committed all judgment to the Son.
He is the son of man and he as man will sit on that throne to judge in that final day.
And it says the books were opened. God has the record of your life.
Not a matter of justifying yourself before me or anybody else down here in this world.
00:55:01
If God has the record.
And it's going to be brought out in that day. No need to rush things because there's no more time.
Going over every detail, every thought. We've entertained every.
Word that's idle every deed.
And they will come out that this person heard the gospel at such and such a gospel meeting.
And decided not to accept Christ as Savior and that he died.
In that state of affairs.
And then there's one more book.
The Book of Life in which you have written the names of all those.
Who are believers in the Lord Jesus?
And it says whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.
Try to imagine the awfulness, the abject awfulness of that soul that stands there.
Naked before God to be judged of his sins.
And then the condemnation is settled.
Cast in into the lake of fire. Didn't say that he went into the lake of fire. He was cast.
I don't know if I'm imagining, but I think of that soul. As he looks into the blackness of darkness forever, he shrinks. There's nowhere to shrink, and he's cast. And as he's cast and he fades into the darkness forever, the last face he sees is the face of the man that died on the cross. To save him from such an end. I plead with you if you haven't.
Accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior. You get straight. Get right with God.
There's any questions you have?
I'd be glad other people too, would be glad to help you get straight, get the questions answered so that you can have peace in your soul with God as to these tremendously important issues. We're getting down to the end of this civilization. I'm convinced it's not going to last a whole lot longer. I'm not setting dates.
But things are going in a direction that is scary. It's in Europe recently and to see the general apostasy. Dean Rule was with me and he told me that several years ago he heard in the in Holland that it used to be, I think he said 100 years ago. Then on a Sunday morning, 96% of the population would be in some kind of a church.
On a Sunday morning, he says. Today, you know what, It's not even 4%.
Not even 4%.
Spain, they tell me, is half atheist. They're ripe for the rising of Antichrist. And there's a man, perhaps alive in the world today. We don't know, because he won't be manifested until after we're gone. But there is a man that will rise and will profess to be God and will demand the worship.
And those people that have not received.
The love of the truth will be condemned.
They will be deceived, you say. Oh no, nobody's ever going to pull the wool over my eyes.
Don't you think you're right? You will be deceived if you do not receive the love of the truth.
Once more, before we close, I want to quote that simple precious.
Verse Jesus said unto him, I am the way.
The truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Let's pray.
1 Corinthians 11:1-16
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Three.
00:05:12
Of continuing on in Matthew 24.
But what we had yesterday was pretty much above the heads of many of the young people.
Some nice thoughts were brought out, but.
Perhaps we could get more into Christian ministry.
What is needed?
For those that are being established in the word of God, in the ways of God, in the assembly. So if there's some thought of another portion besides what we had yesterday, perhaps it would be profitable.
Deep burden to me it's.
So many young people with children raising families.
And they need to know what their responsibility is in the home. That's the first thing that Satan has attacked. He succeeded in doing it.
One Corinthians 11, I would suggest the first part of that chapter is man's place and then followed by woman's place, and the last part is the Lord's Supper. I was talking to his sister who used to be with us and remember the Lord with us, and I asked her, I said, when did you last remember the Lord in his death? Where you now go? She she didn't know. I said, how about the last Lord's day? Did you remember him there?
She said no, it was a preacher that was supposed to be worship. That's not even worship. Our young people need to know the difference between worship and.
Ministry and I said to her, and I couldn't say it to her without tears flowing from me.
Said he asked us one thing.
He asked us to remember him in his death, and you're not doing that. You used to do that. Now you're with a company that it might be a good sermon, but the best sermon is not what he wanted. The Lord wants us to remember him on that day when He rose from the dead. Well, that's just one of the things. And when we take this up, if we do, and I hope we will.
We have two more readings and we've, I think we've said enough on Matthew 24 to cover it. For most of us, the young people, it was over their heads, I'm afraid, but.
I want to give, I'd like to give to look at a passage that I've never heard administered on at a conference. And I think it's needed, it's needed today as never before. Do I have an agreement on that.
I think the chapter we had yesterday was, shall I say, a wake up to us and perhaps reminded us of where we are. But perhaps the subject is a bit large to consider in a gathering like this. And of necessity, the comments don't always present things in the orderly way in which it would be nice to have them. So I'm in full agreement with our brother Chuck's suggestion.
First Corinthians, be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that you Remember Me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.
Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonor with his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesied with her head uncovered dishonor with her head. For that is even all one, as if she were shaved. Or if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered, for a man indeed ought not to cover his head.
For as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head, because of the angels.
00:10:16
Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man and the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, Even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God.
Judging yourselves, Is it comely that a woman prey under God uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame on him?
Woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, or her hair is given her for a covering.
But if any man seemed to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not that you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the Church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe in it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are true may be made manifest among you. When you come together therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper.
Or in eating, everyone taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. What have you not houses to eat, and to drink in? Or despise you the Church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not, for I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.
That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. When he had given thanks, he break it and said, take Eve, this is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cop when he had saw saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood.
This do ye as OFT as ye drink it in remembrance of me, or as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lorde death till he come.
Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cough.
For you to eat us and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lords body.
For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. Or if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren?
When you come together to eat, carry one for another, and if any man hunger, let him eat at home. They come not together under condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come.
This portion, we'll get to that.
Who is it that Satan hates?
Above everyone else in the universe.
Lord Jesus Christ, Satan hates him. He hates to see his redeemed company.
Around himself, remembering him in his death. That's what he's asked us to do. Well, we'll get to that. But it's he wants to, he attacks the that which he hates the most. First it was Christ and then the first part of this chapter, he attacks man's place and woman's place. When did that start in this country in World War 2?
They drafted all the men for the war and who was going to take the men's place out in?
00:15:04
The world that had to have things done well, the women did.
Once they got out in the world and a taste of that, they didn't want to give it up.
And in order to be there, where did they, what did they have to leave the home?
Most important responsibility for the woman is the home, especially after especially after children are born.
What do we have today? Both are working and the children are farmed out to a daycare center.
And Satan sits back there and he's the God and Prince of this world, he says. Now I've got to got him just where he wants.
Well, that's just a little bit of thought on this.
To Christ, but everything that God has set up and established.
On the earth for the blessing and good of man. And there are two great institutions that God set up for the blessing of man. The first was the family. That was the first institution that God set up on earth. And Adam and Eve were placed in the garden and the family, the home was instituted. And then there was another great institution, and that's the assembly. And as Brother Chuck said, the enemy has been busy ever since the institution of those two things to tear it down, to smash it.
If he can. And when has there ever been an attack like on the, I'm sorry, when has there ever been an attack on the home? And not only the home, but the Christian home like there is today. And so a book like Corinthians is very helpful because he takes up the various spheres, as we've had mentioned, the sphere of the man, the sphere of the woman, he brings in the assembly and so on. And all these things are very practical.
Is a doctrinal side through it all that we need to have?
Principles clear in our mind, but I believe there's a very practical side to it, and I would echo the exercise of several already that we need to seek by grace to gain some of those practical lessons. You know, sometimes things are said that might offend and seem very hard, but can we be wiser than God? And if it's the truth of Scripture, are we to go against Scripture and expect the blessing of God in our families or in the assembly? Never, brethren, how good it is to go back to these fundamental principles.
And seek by grace, not just to know them, but to be doers of the word, and not hearers only.
Ephesians chapter 2 because everything goes back to the beginning.
Of things in Genesis chapter 2, verse 18.
The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him and help meet for him suitable for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam, to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a help.
Suitable for him.
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept.
And the Lord took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the ribs which the Lord God had taken from men made he a woman. In our chapter 12 of First Corinthians refers back to this.
She came out of him. He was there first. She was made for him.
And he brought her unto the man. Just imagine what went through Adam's thoughts when he was awakened from that sleep and he saw that beautiful woman.
Adam said This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
She's one of me.
She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. The woman is not inferior to the man, but she's there as a helper, a supplement, so to speak. She can only do the place that she can do. And he, he has his responsibilities, but together, working together, he the head and she in subjection to him. That's a family when the children are born.
00:20:17
They were both naked, he and his wife, and were not ashamed. And then in the next chapter Satan comes in and he gets ahold of the weaker vessel, which is the woman, and he gets her deceived. And then she takes she eats of the fruit that was forbidden, and Adam ate of it.
And in the third chapter, verse 16.
Unto the woman, he said.
I read verse 15. The Lord says.
I will put enmity between thee and the woman. He's talking to the serpent.
Between thy seed and her seed, the woman's seed was Christ.
It shall bruise ahead.
And thou shalt bruise his heel that took place on the cross.
When Satan's power was.
Destroyed. Now notice verse 16. Under the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow. Thou shall bring forth children and thy desire.
Shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule.
Over thee that has never been rescinded.
That has never been rescinded.
And Satan has done everything he can to upset and set aside what God sets up.
Well, that's a little bit of an introduction to what we have. I'll read that verse again under the woman. He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception in sorrow. Thou shall bring forth children. What a wonderful thing I look at a, a mother that's just brought forth a little child and I envy her in a way. I said I I can't do that. She has the the she has the place that God has assigned her.
To bring forth these children, that makes a family. And Satan hates that. He hates that. And if the man falls from his place of responsibility and she from hers, he succeeded.
And thy desire, he says to the woman, shall be to thy husband.
And he shall rule over thee. That's never been changed. That's a little background and foundation for what we have here in the New Testament in First Corinthians 11. I've talked to some, I've gone to Christian bookstores and I pull out the their exposition, these writers on 1St Corinthians 11 and 14, and they say that.
Well, that was just back for then. That was just back for the condition of things that existed at Corinth.
Wrong, absolutely wrong. Look at the 1St chapter. Not going to take too much time, but this is a good introduction in the first chapter of First Corinthians.
Verse two under the Church of God which is at Corinth.
To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called Saints. Now is this letter only to the Saints at Corinth? No, with all that, in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. So all the instruction he gives to this local church at Corinth applies to the whole Church of God throughout the world.
And there are many places where that's referred to.
And in our in our chapter.
It says in verse 16 of Chapter 11.
But if any man seemed to be contentious.
And there's been more contention. The Spirit of God saw, of course, what would happen in this.
20th century, 21St century of ours. He saw what would happen. There's all kinds of contention about this, this teaching you, you can't. That seems to put to insist that the woman has to put a covering on her head that makes her inferior. No. Did the Lord become inferior when he became a man?
He took the subject place, and she's in the subject place. It's not an inferior place.
00:25:02
Is a wonderful place that only she can fill, and he's in the place of headship.
Wonderful verse 16 if any man seemed to be contentious. We have no such custom, neither the churches of God. The churches of God were not following the custom that was being practiced at Corinth.
What's being practiced all throughout American Protestantism and Canadian today? The woman has taken his place. Who's at fault? The man's at fault. The man has given to the woman his place and she's taken it.
Sorry to say it's a very serious thing. Let me just read in the 14th chapter.
In the 14th chapter, verse 34, let the women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted to them to speak. Has that ever been changed? Was that only for Corinth? Oh no, that's for the whole Church of God.
But they are commanded to be under obedience, as also say, at the law. And if they.
They will learn anything from their husbands. Let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame.
For women to speak in the church. What's everywhere now?
When I was a boy, a young boy, that never happened. Just in my lifetime, everything has been turned around.
What he says, he can just anticipate the objection that would come. You talk about this subject. That's a subject you don't want to talk about because it's going to offend someone. Well, that's the word of God offends you. That's your problem.
Came the word of God out from you, or came it unto you only?
Any man think that to be himself, to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge. Paul says that the things I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. How dare we call ourselves Christians and just blatantly violate what he sets before us in this epistle. Very serious thing. You have a tremendous responsibility.
Young sister and you, young brother, you have yours and she should look up and she wants you to have the place of headship. She really does. It's built into the woman. She doesn't really want to be head. She wants to be subject to her head.
And the man wants to be subject to his head, which is Christ, and Christ was the perfect subjection, a perfect picture of perfect subjection to God.
We can't change that, can we? We can't change that. Dave, you've driven me by a church, a huge church in Saint Louis.
That has a woman preacher. I don't know how much you said she takes in, but she's a very, very, very rich woman. That's totally contrary. She's a preacher, totally contrary to Scripture. I don't care how much she takes in.
Go ahead. Well.
It's not far from here, a few miles South.
What a very popular woman in the Christian circles.
Does massive writing, speaking and traveling and so forth. And twice a week she with a vacation. Once a month's vacation a year she takes in $1,000,000 twice a week.
With her ministry, yeah, I think she's a child of God.
And perhaps I've never heard her speak, but she does. Her life was brought before the Saint Louis Saints a couple of years ago when the the.
Saint Louis.
Newspaper big one.
Five day for five days gave the first page and several pages inside the paper on her ministry and her work and her income. The richest woman in the city, that is where she lived and she is pressing, pressing, pressing for.
If you give, it'll always be returned to you. God will return.
00:30:00
More than you give. And so she got quite a bit of money, but that's George Myers. Well, we're thankful for any way the word of God goes out. Paul said whether in truth or pretense, Christ is preached and I therein do rejoice, yay, and will rejoice. And God is sovereign, but our responsibility is to walk in obedience to the word of God. If God shows us something from the word of God by his Spirit, the only happy and blessed path for us.
Is to bow to it and to obey. And I just like in thought, without turning to it, to go back to what Chuck read to us in Genesis because very instructive that when Eve was brought to Adam, she was taken from his side. Now I realize in that picture that God had something in mind far greater than just the blessing of Adam on the earth and companionship for Adam and for those who would follow him in the human race.
God, of course, was looking forward to the time when his Son would have a bride.
As a result of the deaths and shedding of the his precious blood on Calvary's cross. But I think there's something very practical, too, to consider from the fact that Eve was taken from the side of Adam. And I've sometimes said in addressing a groom at a wedding that she was taken from his side, close to his heart to be loved by him. Maybe I'll just say a word about that for a moment. You know, loving our wives is not an option.
I have sat down with young brothers and I'm afraid some who are not so young and they say, well I don't love my wife anymore. That's not an option. Husbands, love your wives and not only does he give tell us to love our wives, He gives us the standard as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Is that an option brother? Brothers, is that an option for you and for me? Can we some say at some point subsequent to our marriage?
That we don't love our wives anymore. I have heard many people say that.
But that is not an option. And that's a little aside. And so she was taken from his side to be close to his heart, loved by him. But you know, I sometimes thought that if she was taken from his head, she would be over him. If she was taken from his feet, she would be under him. And God in his wisdom, I say there's far more to it than this, but God in his wisdom took Eve from the side of Adam, took that rib and formed the woman and brought her her to him.
And yet, brothers, our wives are not over us. They're not under us. They're to be at our sides, close to our hearts and love by by us. Sometimes when I enter the homes of believers, I see a little motto often in the breakfast nook or over the table, and it says this the head of this, that Christ is the head of this home. That is not a scriptural statement. And I I believe that subtly the enemy uses these.
Statements that seem pious.
To throw things out of whack. To throw God's order off course. Christ is not the head of our homes, brothers, those of us who have wives and children.
The man is the head of the home. Christ is the head of the man. Christ is our head, and we are the heads of our homes. And I just say that because I think it's good to keep these things in their proper scriptural order. God has an order and it's for our blessing. That's in verse 3, isn't it? Yes, and I think it's good to see that there is authority. It's a question of headship. It's a question of authority without that.
It is all confusion and disorder. Nobody doubts that the number one man in the.
U.S. government is the president. He may not be the smartest man in the country, but nobody questions the fact that he is number one man as to authority and that keeps order. And that's why it's so important to understand and respect the order of authority that God has said in this world. Let's just read that verse three again because that gives the order of authority I would have you know.
That the head of every man is Christ. So it's not the head of the home. Christ is not the head of the home, but he's the head of the man. And the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Christ is a man, recognized the headship of His Father, and he was in obedience. He was in that place of obedience, so it's God.
00:35:07
The head of Christ. Christ, the head of the man. Man, the head of the woman.
And so it's important to keep those things in order. I'd just like to say too, Jim, I think it is very important that what you said about loving our wives, the woman is never told in Scripture that I can find to love her husband.
The woman or the older women in Titus two are told to teach the younger women how to love their husbands. But that word love is not agape love. It's filial love, something to think about. But the word that you mentioned in Ephesians 525, husbands love your wives. It has been a real help to me to understand that that is not the love of emotion.
Merely, we always think of love as an emotion and it does affect our emotions.
But it's the love of decision.
I have decided to love this woman.
And that is my responsibility before God. And not only that, but it's the love of sacrifice.
As you mentioned, who of us have laid down our lives for our wives?
Brethren, let's not be pointing the finger at our wives and blaming them.
They might have faults, but why do they have faults? It's because we as the head of the wife.
As the head of the home are not supplying proper help.
In time. So I think it is really important to understand that, that it's the love of decision and we need to love in sacrifice. Christ gave everything. I haven't done that yet, brother. I'm at fault. If there's any fault in my home, I'm the responsible head and the blame comes back to me, not to anybody else. So this is really important to understand. I'd just like to make one more comment.
That back in the past eternity, if we could go back beyond creation in our thinking.
God's thoughts, God's eternal purpose.
Was that there would be a companion for his son that we now know is the Church or the Assembly.
That was his eternal thought, his eternal purpose.
Came the time when He created this world, and He created creatures to inhabit this world, and He created man in the image of God and the likeness of God to be in this world. And He put them in relationship to one another to reflect that eternal truth of Christ and His Church. So the thought is in man and the woman.
Companionship and it's interesting, Chuck, what you read in Chapter 3.
About the man having rule over his wife only comes.
After the fall, because of sin that has come into this world and the disorder that sin has brought in, that there's necessity of order, of authority. So it's not a matter, like you say, of superiority or inferiority and creation. No, that's not the thought, but it's a matter of recognizing that in authority the woman is subject to the man.
That's the point and she really wants to be. She really wants to be. That puts her in her place that God assigned to her. I want to read in Colossians 3 verse 18, it says wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. That's not found in Ephesians. It's husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
But this brings in the thought of bitterness. What can cause bitterness to come in?
Is when she's not subject.
Well, she's not subject. I remember being in a home. I've never been in any other home just like this.
Don't even remember who it was, that's not important. But I remember he said to me he was. He loved his wife so much. He said how could I ever have lived without her?
00:40:06
And then I talked to her in private and she said he just loves me. He just loves me. That's the way it ought to be.
There is one little qualification in the verse you read as to the submission of the wife, and that is as it is fit in the Lord. And I just say that because there is always a higher authority. If we're asked to do something that is contrary to the to the Word of God, we appeal to a higher authority. Let me just give you an example. This is ridiculous, but just to make my point, suppose I asked my wife to go out and rob a bank so we can take a little vacation and have a little more money next month.
Is she just submit she's my my wife. I'm the head of the woman is she to submit No, let him that stole steal no more were to provide things honest in the sight of all men. I know that illustration is ridiculous, but it makes I think it helps us to make the point and so I have seen situations where a wife may be asked to do something a Christian wife may be asked to do something contrary to the word of God and against her conscience. Is she to submit in that case?
No, she appeals to a higher authority, and there's only one infallible authority.
All lower authority is fallible. God has committed authority to man.
He's given man authority as the head of the woman. He's committed authority in the home, in the assembly. He's given governmental authority, set up governments for the authority for authority and blessing of man on earth and so on when there's righteousness executed. And that authority is is imperfect at best. And so sometimes people think if they submit that.
Sometimes people think that.
Authority and infallibility are the same thing. They are not the same thing. There's only one authority that's perfect. That's God. That's the Lord himself. Just to carry my thought a little further, we, we live in a world where Christianity is being suppressed in many places and Christians are suffering for their testimony. Christians are suffering and meeting in fear to read the Bible to remember the Lord.
To have prayer meeting, you see, they've appealed to a higher authority. You say they're not submitting to the government, but they appeal to a higher authority, forsaking not the assembling of yourselves together, the Scripture says. And so they feel the Lord has commanded them to meet for those purposes, and they go against the authority of the government. But the only time we are not to submit to authority that God has set up on earth is when it goes contrary to the word of God. Is that right, Bob? I like to put it this way, Jim.
That in saying I cannot obey that command.
I submit myself to a higher authority, like the three friends of Daniel when they were commanded to bow down to that image. They said, in effect, we will take the alternate, the alternative of being cast into the fiery furnace. They were not rebellious, and it's never right to be rebellious. But there's a movement that's called civil disobedience.
That's not the right spirit. We should never be rebellious in spirit. We should be always subject. Like you say. If someone that is not infallible commands us to do something that is wrong, then we submit to the higher authority and we better know what that authority says, not just do our own thing. Bob, while we're on the subject too, I'm afraid that what has happened in the world leave room for someone else.
Make their comment. I'm sorry Chuck, I just want to say this.
This is an actual case. Husband got drunk and his wife wanted to go to the meeting and he said, no, you can't. And she said, well, when you were sober, you said I could, I'm going to obey you when you were sober. And she went and that's, that's an actual illustration. And he didn't oppose it when he got sober, he realized.
What he was commanding her when he was out of his mind, so to speak, was wrong.
And but she she kept the place of submission.
00:45:04
And that's that's what is so important that she doesn't set her.
Herself above him, but just to submit to him whenever she possibly can for the Lords glory. And sometimes she'll say all right.
You won't want me to go. I won't go, but that's then you'll have to answer to the Lord for my not going and I'm bowing to you. And that didn't last very long either. He got saved from that. That's another illustration. So I don't, I don't quite agree with what you said, Jim.
That we have to just find a way out. The woman has to find a way out so she doesn't have to submit to her.
Her husband's authority? She should seek to submit to it as far as she possibly can, unless it's gross sin that she's being asked to do.
Another aspect to the Apostle Paul's ministry in this portion that is helpful, it uses the word dishonor with her head. And then he speaks of the glory. And So what we find is in the breakdown that we speak of this after this morning is that there's dishonor to the name of the Lord and there's dishonor to the order that He's desired that we might walk in if we walk in disobedience to this order that he outlines. And so it speaks in verse 7.
Of the glory, he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. And so God has desired that there would be glory in the relationship. There would be a reflection of some of the glory of Christ in the relationship that we read of it here this this morning. And so you know, the woman covers the glory of the natural man, the first Adam. She covers that glory in the presence of God.
That the glory of Christ might shine forth. And so that's what it says here in verse 7.
He is the image and glory of God, and so the man doesn't cover his head in the presence of the Lord.
Because it's the glory of the Lord that needs to shine forth in the assembly, and when the Word of God is read, it's the first Adam's glory that needs to be hidden and covered. And so there's proper order that needs to be exercised and obeyed that there might be glory brought to the Lord as a result.
Brother Rob, would you say you mentioned in the assembly, but wouldn't we say this is more than just the assembly because as we go on in the chapter, it says because of angels?
Yes, that's absolutely appropriate. There's it's a lovely picture. You know, when you see a woman in the home and the word of God is picked up and just opened and spoken up. Perhaps not even the Bible is picked up, but verses of Scripture are quoted. And she goes and she gets a head covering. She covers the glory of the first Adam. She says, I don't want the first Adam to shine out in this discussion at all. I want Christ to shine into the glory of the Lord to be prevalent in this discussion. And so the word of God is read in the glory of the natural man is hidden.
And there's profit, there's blessing, and there's a testimony not only to those in the home that see that subjection to the order.
Submission to that order. And but there's also blessing is, is it says for the angels look down, there's a testimony, a heavenly, a testimony of the heavenly beings as it were as a result of that order. And so it's Christ that shines forth.
Says in verses 5 and six, there's this two of the woman. Now every woman that prayeth or prophesied with her head uncovered, dishonoured her head, for that is even all one, as if she were shaved.
For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But it would be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaved, and it is, it was. Let her be covered. So if she prays or prophecies, there were four virgin daughters that prophesied, they should have done that with their heads covered. But the women that are preaching nowadays in Christendom, in the pulpits, they don't. They have the brazen boldness to preach without their heads covered.
I mean, it's just like slapping the Lord in the face. What does the scripture say? It's just like she had no hair at all. She had a complete shave. Just like a football player, he gives his head completely shaved off.
Terrible, just an answer to what Stephen was saying is some people take this chapter as if it's just in the assembly. But in the 17 first we find a break in the in the thought it moves on. And he says now in this I declare unto you, I praise you not that when you come together. And so I can't it says if I have long hair, nature says that it's a shame for a man to have long hair. Well, I can't have short hair and meeting and long hair outside.
00:50:28
It's what we're reading in these first 16 verses is everywhere. It's not just in the assembly. What we're reading about head coverings. I'd like to say this too, in connection with Bob's verse, is that sometimes as men we sit in meeting and we sort of say how women should conduct themselves in these difficult situations with a drunken husband and so on are an unreasonable husband. But that verse that Bob quoted from Peter was that the older women should teach the younger women how to love their husbands.
Is that it really is the work of the godly older sister to do.
And sometimes it's very difficult for our wives to know just about how to go about loving us.
And so in these situations, it's good. And we say a woman, if she prays or prophecies with her head on coverage, she dishonors her head. And you say, well, when does a woman pray or prophecy? Not in the meeting, not in church, so to speak. But there is a place for a woman to prophecy. And it's exactly in the context that our brother Bob spoke of when his sister may instruct the younger sister just how she ought to conduct herself in a very difficult situation.
It may be 14th that 14th chapter clear. I'll read it again. Let the women keep silence in the churches. It is not permitted to them to speak. So she can't prophecy in the church, but she has to be quiet if they will learn anything, I slip them as their husbands at home and so on. And then he says what came the word of God out from you going to argue with the word of God? Oh, that's just your opinion. My opinion is different. Well, my opinion doesn't count for a straw, neither does yours is what God says.
If we don't go by the word of God in everything, we're off the ground of of obedience to the Lord that what it says in verse three of four and five is when they pray or prophecy that is not limited to the assembly and that's why we take off our hats if we got any hats on, take them off when we come into a public meeting, but that should reply.
Anytime I pray, take off my hat, take that stance of prayer, the woman puts on. It doesn't matter whether it's in the meeting because I submit, brethren, that women pray in the meeting. They don't pray out loud, but one brother stands up and prays and he's the voice of the whole assembly. Are the women praying? Yes, they're praying. They are represented in what the brother is saying.
They don't take part audibly, but they do. And I think the women should say Amen at the end. They may not say it audibly, but they are praying as much as the men, so it's proper for them to be covered. And what is given Chuck in Christian circles so often is they say that the woman's hair is her covering.
If you look back at the scripture here, there are two words used. There are separate words in verse 16. It I mean verse 15, it says her hair is given to her for a covering. The word is really in the in the margin of veil. It is not the same word that is used in the first part of the chapter in verse 5. For example, every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, that's a different word.
That's used, and if you look at it carefully, the scripture has no meaning. If you make the hair the covering, is it something she can just put on when she starts praying and then take off afterwards? No, it's not talking about the hair. It's talking about something that is a sign to the unseen angelic hosts that are watching.
That this woman recognizes yet the order of God-given authority by putting a covering on her head when she prays or prophecies wherever that might be. That argument is so false. That would mean that every brother would have to have his head cut, his hair cut off. If the hair is the covering, he'd have to come ball. There's some bald headed brother in here. They could qualify for that.
00:55:14
But most of us still have our hair. It's nonsense. The hair is not the covering. It's something you put over the head. And that's the what the woman should have. I was in a synagogue 1, not a synagogue. I don't know what it was. It was a building and celebrating a Jews, a Jews funeral. And they passed out these little caps. All the Jews cover their heads, males, the males cover their heads. And they passed me that thing and I said I don't put that on, I'm a Christian. I don't put that on. I'm a Christian. And if that gave them a fence, too bad.
I wouldn't do what scripture says I shouldn't do. I shouldn't have my head.
Covered. That's the place of the woman, but I don't know where they get that from. Maybe someone knows here where they get that from, of covering their heads, the Jews. But that's what they do.
There are two things mentioned in Corinthians with respect to man for men that are effeminate, and there are men that are abusers of themselves with mankind. And to put it in simple language, not all effeminate men are gay.
Effeminate is really for a man not to take his place his head, and a great deal of the failure has come because man has failed to take occupy the place.
That God has put him in. We go to work and a man's a credit manager and he doesn't say, well, who am I to say you can't do this and who am I to say that you can't have this money? He acts responsibly because he's been put in a place as a trustee over in other bands goods. And so as men, we have ahead.
And it's Christ and God gives us children and God gives us homes and we're responsible to guide them as stewards of what God has given us. And to not do that is to say, who am I to do this is we're really, it's really being effeminate. And so this question is we don't cover our heads because we own the responsibility given to us of God. The sisters cover their heads because they realize they've been put in that place, that they've been there to reflect the glory of the man. And so.
They cover their heads to mark, as has been pointed out, that they are in a place of submission.
It's not a place of inferiority. It's a place that God has assigned to the woman. You can't have two heads. I saw it portrayed this way, the way it's put God.
Christ. And then, then it branches off man and woman. That's unscriptural. That puts the woman on the same level as the man. The Scripture is God, Christ, man, woman. She's under him, not next to him.
In that in the order that we have here. So she has her head covered to acknowledge that I'm under him and.
If he has his head covers covered, it's a dishonor to Christ. Who is his head? His head ought to be seen. The man's hair head being not covered, it is because he's the image and glory of God.
That ought to be seen.
The whole order that is being practiced in Christian circles today is wrong.
It's unscriptural.
Women who pray without being covered.
Certainly is.
Sometimes it's because there's not proper instruction and we have to be patient.
Don't we with others?
But we need to be reminded of the authority of God's authority, God's order. Verse six says let her be covered. And so in Christianity, the Lord isn't going to command it as it were. There's going to be a command to the heart. Let her be covered. And so you know, the Lord says a little later on in this chapter this do in remembrance of me. He's not going to demand it and insist.
The upon it, as it were. But His word reaches the heart and the conscience.
And there's a responsive heart. And he says, let her be covered. And so she responds in her heart. She says, oh, I love this, glory, this, this.
Display of how I can honor the Lord in this proper order. And oh, I just delight to honor the Lord in this way and to come into subjection and to reflect how Christ will have his bride beside him and she won't reflect her own glory.
01:00:05
Anyway, it'll be the reflection of the glory of Christ, and so she submits to that order. But isn't it lovely how the Lord just brings this out? The the apostle Paul just says, and he uses it so often in his ministry, let her be covered, the woman.
And it was, I think it was 0 or maybe even below 0, and he was called to go out and do a survey, some property and I was sitting in the back.
And of course, I had my hat on and I said, Lord took it off. I said, I got to pray to you. So I took the hat off because I didn't want to pray with the hat on. And that's just a little illustration. You might be a sister in your car and you want to talk to the Lord and pray with the Lord. Be nice if you had your head covered. But if you don't and you see you're going to have an accident, you could say, Lord, help me, Lord, save me. Hear that prayer. You'll hear that prayer.
But the normal state of things they probably would have heard. I mean, if I had my my head covered and we're going to have an accident, I could cry to the Lord. But that's not really what's the point in this passage. Man has his place and the woman has her place, and both are precious. The man should not desire her place and she shouldn't desire his place. Each one is given a place and it makes the blessed Lord, He took the place of subjection. That ought to make the woman feel real good.
He took the same place that I'm occupying. Wonderful. But the man is in subjection too, isn't he? Yes, it's to Christ. And so we should never get the idea here. I'm in command here. I'll do what I want to do. We should operate always in the sense that He is our head. One other thing too that needs to be mentioned is the woman doesn't cover her head. Who is she dishonouring? It's not the Lord, it's her head, which is her husband.
That's what she's dishonouring.
Wonder if I could read up.
1St in connection with the chapter, and the first one is from Ephesians 2.
Or, excuse me, Ephesians 3 and verse 10.
To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heaven.
Might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God, and so those.
Created intelligences and heavenly places are looking down, and in seeing God's order displayed in this earth, they're learning and understanding the purposes of God in Christ from a past eternity.
And it comes right down to these simple things that we're taking up in this chapter.
That God's purposes are being displayed in an outward way in this earth. Now I'd like, with that thought in mind, to turn back to two Old Testament scriptures.
One in Numbers chapter 5. Numbers chapter 5, there was a special ordinance given if a man was suspected his wife of infidelity and was jealous. There was a trial of jealousy. There were a number of things performed, but one of them I'd like to read is verse 18 of numbers five. And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and uncover the woman's head.
And so she was in a suspect place, and when she's brought before the Lord, her head was uncovered. Now if we turn also to Deuteronomy.
And chapter 21.
And this is an ordinance in connection with a man bringing home a captive from war that he wanted to take as his bride.
Deuteronomy 21, verse 12. Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house. She shall shave her head and pair her nails. One other scripture from Jeremiah Chapter 7.
Jeremiah, Chapter 7.
In verse 29.
Cut off on hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away. Take up a lamentation on high places, for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
01:05:07
The woman is the glory of the man, just as Christ is the glory. The church is the glory of Christ. She is to be the outward display in this world of the glory of Christ. Christ is hidden God in heaven.
He's no longer on display here, but in the church. His help meet, His glory is to be displayed in this world. And God has purposed that in this order of things, of the man and the woman in their proper place, that that glory, that same thing would be displayed in this world in a very practical way, not only for this world, but even for the angels.
Two things the church never is to Christ. She's never in a suspect place and she is never out from under His authority and his care. She's never with her head uncovered and that place of a trial of jealousy. She's never like this captive, no longer under the authority of her father's house. She's been taken captive, not yet in marriage, been brought into the authority of a new husband.
And she's to cut off her hair, that hair which is a picture of that subject place that she's into, she no longer is in that place. And it's to be cut off when God casts off his earthly people for a time because of their sin and wickedness, He says Jerusalem, cut off thine hair. You're not going to have the token any longer of the subject place which you've abandoned.
And for which I must cast you off.
Those are two things the church will never be to Christ, and so it's so important.
In the sight of God that created intelligence and authorities looked down as well as this world. See in a practical way those two things. And the woman who is the glory of the man, the outward display of his glory, that the church is always in the confidence of Christ. Head covered. She's always in the place of subjection and under his care and authority. Long hair. Both are important.
Brethren, both are the subject of this chapter. Not just the covered head, but the long hair. And you see that with the Nazarite as well. The Nazarite was to let his hair grow. Why? Because he was taking a special subject place to God, completely laying aside every other thing, and being totally subject to God. What was the commandment or razor shall not come upon his head. He was to have that outward token.
Of the subject place that he came into and in Revelation where we get in the plagues that come upon this earth in symbolic language. One of the afflictions in the description of it says they had the hair of women. It wasn't because it was red or blonde or curly is the only way you could identify the hair of women is in one thing, its length.
Its length, because every other attribute of that hair men share as well. And so it's again seeing in that particular plague that though it looks like it comes from Satan, it's totally subject and under the hand of God that long hair is a picture of subjection as well.
Can you comment on verse 10? That goes right along with what he was saying in Chapter 11.
Did it that when it says here this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels, it's a sign that she is under that subjection, isn't it? Is that, is that what you were getting at?
And it's so beautiful to see because what is she looking at? Something above the present situation. If I look around me and Bob, you were bringing this out in your.
Gospel yesterday, but if we look around us, everything is upside down.
In this world everything is out of order and it is very easy to have our hearts guided and otherwise formed by what we see around us. I cannot carry this out unless my eye is on something above because of the angels and then even more as has already been brought out because of the glory of the Lord. What a what a difference it makes because everything down here I may look at it and say well.
01:10:14
That's hard to do, or nobody else is doing it anymore.
I knew an old minister, a Baptist minister, had happened to be, but that doesn't matter. He's with the Lord now. I knew him very well.
And he said, you know, when I go to my church on Lord's Day, he said my wife's the only one that wears a head covering. And he grieved over that. He felt it. And yet he felt powerless to do anything about it, even though he was the preacher. But what a difference it makes if we look above it all. Is that is that right? Is that what you were getting at? The angels are always subject, aren't they?
They're called in First Timothy 5, the elect angels.
And they are preserved in sinless sinlessness.
So they don't know anything else but obedience.
Remember Eric Smith used to comment on that and say what do the angels say when they see a disobedient Christian?
You know, they're observing us. They're present in this room right now, they're ministering spirits and most of the time we don't see them, but they're observing us. And that head covering on the sister is not just a custom that we have. It's gathered the Lord's name. It's there's a there's a purpose to it. Dear sister, you are showing.
Your recognition of authority to God. And it's an outward way. Sometimes people reject it by saying, oh, I just something outward.
Yes, it is outward, but it is then that way we show our submission to God-given authority. The man in the same way should make sure to have his head uncovered when he prays or prophecies. It's a testimony. I've seen it happen many times in Bolivia. Somebody wants to give testimony to the gospel and as soon as the Lord is mentioned, off comes the hat.
It's a testimony, people say. Why do you do that?
Because he's prophesying, he's speaking the word of God, and that's a testimony that that man recognizes the authority that God has set in this world. The angels are there. I don't think we realize how much we profit from the ministry of angels. Do we recognize the authority that they recognize? Are we submissive to it?
Not only for the woman, we concentrate on the women, but it's for the man too.
Brother, I wonder if we could have a little balance in this. Scripture says that we're to pray without ceasing.
So if we follow the instruction that we've had, we have women always wearing head coverings and men never wearing hats.
I just bring this out as a as AI feel that there's a needed balance to what we're bringing out here.
It's interesting, Bob, I just said about outward appearance. Just read in First Samuel 16 because I think there's help, something helpful about this.
And.
God says to Samuel, Somebody help.
The first man worketh on the looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart.
Seven yes, thank you. But the Lord said unto Samuel, look not on its countenance, nor on the height of his stature, because I've refused him for the Lord. Lord seeth not as man seeth. For the man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart. And shall people often use that? And they say, well, God sees my heart. It doesn't matter what I look like on the outside. But now let's just turn down to the.
12Th verse and see what this word of God says.
And he sent, that is alive, sent for David, and brought him in. Now he was Ruddy, and with all of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look upon. And the Lord said, Arise and anoint, for it is he.
And so there's not a contradiction here that if there is a heart that's devoted for Christ, it's going to reflect itself outwardly.
01:15:00
There's going to be an outward manifestation of it. There's another scripture I'd like to point out that might be a help to the young sisters, and that's in the book of Esther. We were speaking about living in up confusing days where everything was upside down and backwards. And certainly that was true in the days of Esther, that here was a people taken away captive. They were in an enemy land, and here was this young girl shut up in a House of the concubines of the king, foreign king.
And in Samuel Esther chapter 2.
And verse 10 we read this, Esther showed not herself nor her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her that he should not, she should not show it. And Mordecai walked every day before the court of the woman's house to know how Esther did and what should become of her.
You know, we hear today people say, well, I'm 18 years old and I'm going to move out of my father's house and I'm not under my father's roof anymore. And so I don't have to be subjection to him anymore. But here was a young woman. It wasn't even her father. It was her uncle. And yet she had a head. And what a happy thing. You know, it's a very interesting thing in this book that that Gentile bride was set aside because he pleased not the king. But Esther is even among the Jews today.
As celebrated and honored.
As a woman and even, you know, young men, we need to honor that which God honors. And I think sometimes the young ladies try to present themselves in a way that they think the young men are interested in. But the world, they look at a Christian woman and they say they see something that is of great price and great value.
And the Jews, they still on arrest her, but she was subject to Mordecai. She went to Mordecai for advice, even though she was not living under his roof, even though it wasn't exactly her father, it was her uncle. But she had a head. And it is something that the world even recognizes. And so, well, the woman doesn't preach that publicly, that she displays Christ in a way that words cannot.
Question if I may.
Back a few verses that uh.
We talked about verse. We talked about verse 3 where it says the head of the woman is the man.
There was an expression used as well that I don't know what's in Scripture that says the man is the head of the house. And here it's I see that it says that the man is the head of the woman or the wife. Is there a difference between being the head of the wife and the head of the home?
The authority that God has placed with the man and not with the woman. I want to answer Phillips a comment Notice verse 4 every man praying or prophesying since the praying there is coupled with prophesying, which you don't prophecy to yourself, you're prophesying out loud to someone else to hear you. And the same thing is true of this kind of praying when a woman takes the place which is normally.
The man's responsibility, if that happens, is she prays or prophecies. She should have her head covered as showing that she's doing this in subjection to the man. She's not taking the man's place, but she's doing something which is normally the man's responsibility.
And I may be praying without ceasing all the time, but it's like you say, Jack, I think it's when you take the stance in a public way.
Of praying or prophesying that that is the case to be practiced.
Time and so God has his glory, and in this chapter it says the.
01:20:04
That man is the glory of God.
God then has chosen to give to what he has created its own particular and individual glory. And so man has a glory. It's the woman, it says in the chapter.
He creates the woman, and he gives to her her own glory, her long hair.
And so it's somewhat simple, but it's important to recognize that God, to each that he has created, has given to that creation its own particular and individual glory, which is its own.
Lord Jesus.
Is a special case really, because He is also man, but he is head over all other men, and he is also had over the Church, and the church is his glory.
Each one who is under at any level has a head is to act in every way so that they do not take away from the glory of one that is over them in headship.
And all that we've said this morning really comes down to that principle that man, the woman, Christ, each one acts in such a way that they enhance or reflect or.
Are the glory of the one that is over them.
God says I don't give my glory to another.
And consequently, even the Lord Jesus Christ.
In his place with God as man acts in such a way that everything he does is to the glory of the one who is His head.
And in such as in putting a covering and so on, it's done so that the one who is above in headship has, does not have competition or does not have something which takes away from their proper place of glory. And so in order to do that, many times this morning has been expressed the expression of subjection.
Because subjection is always that act at every level that is expressed here of headship. It is that which puts that person who has a glory under the other. It keeps that one above them in their proper place. And so I just say again, God has His glory in man.
Christ has His glory in every man.
And in the church, man has his glory in the woman, and the woman has his glory in her long hair.
And all are a proper reflection in their place of God's supreme glory, and will always be such, because God Himself, in all that He has done and all He has created, has done it.
He tells us that's why we were created for His glory, and the failure many times at a lower level of headship is because of the failure of the one above them.
But in God's case he never failed. In Christ's case he never failed. The greatest failure in the matter of headship is the man, not the woman, even though we've emphasized the woman in its practical expressions and praying and so on and so on. But in the reality, if there's to be shame in this room, the greatest expression of it is in the man.
Not in the woman.
She has failed but in Adams place in the Garden of Eden.
He was responsible to guard the woman because he had dominion and responsibility and he failed in it and exposed the woman and sin came in and.
01:25:10
Our great failure, brothers.
Is not having submitted to the headship of our Head Christ?
And it has infected the Assembly of God and it has affected the woman.
And we so easily take up a subject like this and immediately look at somebody else's failures, this church in that place and somewhere else. And the It's easy for us, in the end to feel good about ourselves. But the truth of the matter is, we should feel humbled when we recognize that the supreme place where headship has broken down is not with God.
Not with Christ, it's with the man. And in under that, yes, the woman has failed.
200 M 200 I'd like to say before we close in connection with your question, Dave, just we are our only safe in the way we keep to the very language of Scripture and Scripture does say that the man is the head of the woman, not of the home. There's one verse I'd like to point out. It's in First Timothy 5 and verse 14 that I think shows the that the woman has rule.
In a certain place as well, and I'm going to read it out of the new translation, Mr. Darby's translation. I will therefore that the younger marry their children rule the house.
Give no occasion to the adversary in respect of reproach. The man is nothing. There often is at work. Most of the time the woman is to rule the house.
200.
We stood in condemnation.
Pride and death at the cross of every sword.
Has grazed him from the truth.
01:30:20
I'd like to just read one verse in Revelation, the third chapter in the 11Th verse. We've had some very exercising things.
It isn't like one sister said. How is it we get around that? We don't want to get around it. We want to meet it fairly squarely and in the fear of God. Revelation 3 and verse 11.
Behold, I come quickly.
Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. We need to hold fast to what is the teaching of Scripture and we're not in a box. Somebody recently said that and and felt constrained to leave the testimony. But you know in the Song of Solomon it says.
That were looked at as a garden enclosed, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, so much different than a box. But all to think of the liberty of the Lord looking at us, rather than our looking at ourselves as in a box.
Psalm 84
Address—Bill Prost
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Oh, Lord, thy rich, thy boundless love.
No thought can reach, no tongue declare. We'll give our hearts its depth to prove and reign without arrival there.
This hymn was written by a man who knew what he was talking about. Paul Gerhart lived back in the post Reformation days in what is now Germany, and during that time there was still a good deal of opposition to the Gospel.
He encountered all kinds of persecution and difficulties, had to go through what you and I would call nightmares of difficulty, driven from his home and exiled. And when you read his hymns, you can't help but notice the spirit and the grace and the sense of the Lord's love and care that animated them.
#274.
Oh Lord, thy red thigh.
And reinstalled God.
4:00 Yeah.
My heart.
Came back and the room.
They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and I'm going to ask if some local brother would fill this cup because if I suddenly need it, it won't be much good empty. Thank you.
00:05:05
You know our brother Dawn brought before us yesterday afternoon.
What chastisement is all about and the importance of taking it in the right spirit.
And I had already had something on my heart, not exactly along the same line, but at least in a similar way. And I would like to turn this afternoon to the 84th Psalm, Psalm 84.
Two cups? Oh my, well, that's my cup runneth over.
Psalm 84.
Now we know that the Psalms have an unusual character, and I suppose we can look at the Psalms, and we don't mean to go into that in detail, but we can look at the Psalms.
In perhaps at least four different ways. First of all, they are the experience of the man.
Who wrote them or the individuals who were involved in the exercises?
And we can see what they went through.
Going on beyond that, we can see that they are prophetic because they bring before us the thoughts and feelings that Israel, and perhaps even more than that, the Jews, will go through in a coming day as they pass through the Tribulation and then through the various exercises that bring in millennial blessing.
Going beyond that, we find that the Spirit of God in some cases leads the psalmist to go far beyond human experience.
And to express that which can be true only of the Lord Jesus Himself.
And no doubt that is something of what the Apostle Peter refers to when he says that.
There were those Old Testament writers who searched what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them, did signify, when it testified beforehand, the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
But then there's a fourth application of the Psalms, and that is to ourselves.
And that is what I want to look at this afternoon.
You know, those men who lived in the Old Testament, as Scripture says, were men of like passion, such as we are. And even though they didn't know the truth of the assembly, as you and I do, they did not know in the same way the finished work of Christ and all that He has done for us. Yet they went through many similar experiences, similar difficulties, and when we read how they reacted to them and how the Spirit of God led them to write.
We can find that which is an encouragement to our own souls.
Let's read this Psalm together. Psalm 84.
The inspired title says to the chief musician upon getteth a Psalm for the sons of Korah.
How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts, My soul longeth ye even fainteth for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Yeah, the Sparrow hath found in house, and to the swallow and nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be still praising thee.
Sila.
Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the ways of them.
Who, passing through the valley of Baker, make it a well? The rain also fill up the pools. They go from strength to strength. Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer.
Give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed, for a day in thy courts is better than 1000. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a son and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory.
00:10:07
No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee.
I'd like, perhaps arbitrarily, to divide this Psalm into 3 sections.
The first section dealing with the individual.
Having a desire for the Tabernacles, the courts of the Lord.
His heart and his flesh crying out for the living God.
Then the second part of the Psalm, verses 5 down to the end of verse 8.
Bringing before us, perhaps some of the difficulties, some of the things along the way.
That the individual maybe, if we can apply it to you and to me, some of the things that we have to pass through in order to be there.
And then finally, the last section from verses 9 to the end, the Lord encouraging us.
With his care over us and a vision of coming glory.
You know this Psalm, if we can just look at it, and I know reference was made to ministry going over the heads of the young people.
I've been at young people's get together sometimes and I know I've made this remark before.
But sometimes they play baseball, and generally young people are pretty good at assessing the capabilities of the person up to bat. And sometimes, somewhat embarrassingly, when someone goes up to bat, they move up in close. But other times there's a call, oh, heavy hitter, move back.
And I've never yet seen young people say, ah, he always hits it over our heads, so don't even bother moving back because you'll never get it anyway. No, they don't do that. And I know you young people want to know more about the things of the Lord. And sometimes you may find a remark made in meetings like this that at first glance you say, I don't understand it.
But you know what's good, what is good if it stimulates you to go home and say.
Now what was that brother talking about? I want to find out. I'm going to ask somebody, or even perhaps better still, go to the word of God, maybe go to the good books that I hope are on your bookshelf and say, what was he getting at?
This Psalm is found in what is perhaps very well known as the third book of the Psalms, and prophetically it's after the Tribulation period and Israel is beginning to be recalled. The 10 tribes are being brought back in. And so here in the first few verses of this Psalm, the individual is crying out for the Lord, but the emphasis is on.
Perhaps more of the collective aspect of it rather than the individual.
If we turn back a moment, perhaps to the 63rd Psalm, there we find more the individual.
And we'll just turn back to see very similar wording, but more on an individual basis.
Psalm 63 says verse one. Oh God, thou art my God.
Early will I seek thee.
Notice the language. My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land.
Where no water is.
That's in the second book of the Psalms, and there they're in the middle of the Great Tribulation.
They don't even have the sense of that relationship to the Lord that they would like, and so God is addressed as God, not as Jehovah.
But the individual cries out his soul and then his flesh for the living God.
But here we find the same thing, but more in a collective aspect.
And I'd like to make the application, if I may. Israel will look forward to that collective aspect in a coming day because they have been denied it. They will be driven out of the temple, the godly ones that is. And for that awful time of the tribulation, they will not be able to enjoy the Lord's presence collectively. They'll have to go around individually. And there is that aspect of things in your life and mine today.
00:15:26
It's a time when you and I need to have that individual relationship with the Lord.
But thank God, thank God, he has preserved to us the collective aspect and here the individual.
Is, you might say, swallowed up in the collective aspect of things and the cry is my soul longeth verse two. Yeah, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
My late father-in-law, Albert Hayhoe, and you'll pardon my repeating something he said, but I well remember his making a remark on this scripture. Ultimately it applies to the same thing in the 63rd Psalm. There is an order. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Oh, the heart had to come first, and then my flesh.
Sometimes we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, and I don't mean that they necessarily are, you might say, physically difficult to go through, but I am finding perhaps that the situation is very, very hard for me.
But then the Lord speaks to my heart perhaps, and says.
And I'll use my own name. Bill, do you want me for my own sake?
Do you want me because of what I am and what I can be to you?
Or do you want me?
Just because the circumstances are rough.
Sometimes the circumstances collectively are not what they should be.
And I know that I am looking into the faces right here this afternoon of those who have been through real difficulties either recently or in the past.
That have, shall we say, jolted them to their very foundations concerning the collective aspect of things on the earth at this present time. And what a wonderful thing it is to be able to go to the Lord. But you know if those difficulties, hard though they are to bear.
Drive us to the Lord and to the One who wants to be everything.
To you and to me.
I say to my own heart.
They're worth it. They're worth it because there is a danger of my being taken up, perhaps with the.
Outward aspect of things, and it's wonderful to enjoy Christian fellowship. It's wonderful to be able to gather together like this. It's wonderful to have the Ways and Means to do it.
But I have seen brethren, and perhaps some here have had the same experience.
Who do not have these privileges, who do not have the money or the liberty to get together like this.
And for whom the collective aspect of things may be very limited, and yet you find in their hearts that reality as they get near to the Lord.
What does it say here in verse 3?
Oh, the Sparrow hath found in house and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young.
I don't pretend to be able to explain this completely, but it seems that the Word of God, the Spirit of God, picks up these two birds, specifically the Sparrow. Perhaps being well, in scripture it's presented as that which is cheap and worthless. Isn't it? In the Lord's time, he could speak of their being sold very cheap in the marketplace. And if you bought four of them, then they threw in one more just for well, they were so cheap they could give you one free.
The Sparrow, a bird that wasn't particularly pretty to look at, was of no account.
And sometimes we feel as if we're of no account.
But the Lord has a place for you.
A place for you where he is.
00:20:02
What about the swallow?
Well, that speaks more to my own heart because the swallow is a restless bird, always on the move.
And the swallow knows very well how to look after herself.
I well remember when our children were young how we had barn swallows that would build their nests right under the porch in our home and I couldn't believe it because we had a cat. A cat who didn't hesitate to catch birds if the opportunity arose.
But she never got that swallow.
In fact, the cat was afraid of the swallow and I can still remember that cat.
Standing at the edge of our yard, under the protection of the bushes and meowing for an escort to the back door.
Lest that swallow would die. Bomb it on the way there. Yes, the swallow knew how to look after itself. It was restless.
Fly very quickly.
And you know there's a place for that swallow, too, to have her nest.
What does the nest speak of? The nest speaks of bringing up young. The nest speaks of that bird laying eggs, raising young.
And they want a place where they use young can be safe. And I say to you, beloved young people, beloved young parents, I have heard parents say, oh, I can't bring my children up in this atmosphere or that atmosphere. I am afraid they will be affected by this or that. Oh, where can the Sparrow and the swallow find a nest for their young?
Where she may lay her young, even thine altars.
O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God, oh what a wonderful thing it is to come to where the Lord is, and the altar would bring before us that which would go all the way back to the cross of Christ.
I hope it's not stretching a point too much to emphasize what our brother was bringing before us in First Corinthians 11:00 this morning.
It brings before us that precious privilege of remembering the Lord in his death.
Our late brother Eric Smith, now with the Lord for quite a few years, used to say it's the dearest place to my heart this side of the glory.
And it's a wonderful thing to be able to sit down simply in the Lord's presence.
And to allow His Spirit to lead and guide as our hearts are lifted up in Thanksgiving and praise and worship to Him.
Oh, there's a place I suggest where the Sparrow and the swallow can find a place to rest.
And so I say to you, without any fear of contradiction, I believe with all my heart.
That God is going to preserve unto us a place.
Where we can gather together to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
On the ground of the one body, with the confidence that the Lord is there in the midst, until he comes.
I know I quote the older brethren a lot, you'll pardon that, but I can remember our late brother.
Late brother. He's been gone a good many years now, Clifford Brown reminding us that God would always give us that privilege right to the end.
He said our God would not be God. And I don't believe that you and I will ever be put in the position where we read in God's Word precious truth that we want to walk in and things that we are told to do that we want to carry out. And yet we have to say, I can't do it because the circumstances, the day in which I live make it impossible. No, I say with all my heart, I don't believe God will ever bring us.
To that.
But we may have to find.
That it's those who have the earnest desire who get there.
And this does not bring any glory to us, but it's going to mean perhaps a sacrifice. It's going to mean effort.
But there's an expression here that occurs 3 times at least in this Psalm, which I have appreciated. It refers to the Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts. So that expression, the Lord of hosts, I suggest to you and to me, bring before us God in his power, and when you and I are in the pathway of His will.
00:25:06
We have all his power behind us.
I remember saying that to a dear brother in India quite a few years ago. He was feeling the difficulties in his own life.
He was feeling the opposition in his Christian pathway, and it was much more difficult for him than it is for me because they are in a land where they're, I guess are about 2% of the population that are Christians. There may be more, sometimes the statistics get a little bit skewed, but that would include even what they call nominal Christians who aren't perhaps truly saved even, but who call themselves Christians.
He was finding it very difficult to swim against the tide.
Oh, I said, brother, remember, if you are in the pathway of the Lord's will.
You can count on all the power of God behind you always said, Is that true? I said, indeed it is. It may not be the kind of power that manifests itself as it did in the times of Pentecost or in the early days of the Church, and it would be unintelligent to look for that, but in the pathway of the Lord's will. The Lord is with you, whether you are an individual or whether we gather together collectively.
You know Israel by this point, to use the words of prophecy.
Will have been brought to the position where it says Judah shall sit upon the ground.
They'll have been brought right to the very end of themselves through that awful tribulation.
To the point where they have to throw up their hands because God has allowed the enemy, the overflowing scourge, to come in in such an awful way that, as was remarked I think in one of the readings yesterday, the blood will flow. And I know perhaps the imagery is there, but nevertheless, the picture is clear. The blood will flow, clear up to the horse's bridles, says for a space of 1600 furlongs.
200 miles, just about the length of the land of Israel. That's what they'll have to go through.
And then when they get to this point.
They won't be trusting in themselves anymore. They won't be looking to themselves. And that's the point that the Lord has to bring us to sometimes.
There's anything in me that says I'm somebody, I know something we can handle the situation.
We've got the power. Oh, the Lord has to say no, I love you too much to allow that to go on. I'll have to humble that spiritual pride and I'll have to bring you down low. But then I will find when I'm brought to that point, when we are brought to that point, that that cry can go up. My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Well, let's go on here.
What do we have to go through those the way going to be smooth sailing.
Oh, not necessarily. Verse five says Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee.
Oh, you say. I have heard that over and over again. I have heard it over and over again that we have to rely on the Lord, that it must be in His strength.
But again, speaking to my own heart.
Do I realize it?
Or does it take a lifetime to learn it?
Does it take a lifetime to realize, as Paul said, when I am weak, then am I strong? Does it take a thorn in the flesh? It did. Paul, great apostle though he was there, had to be that thorn in the flesh to make him realize that the Lord must be his strength. But oh, what a wonderful thing it is to find that our strength is in Him. And this is nothing new. How many believers down through the ages have had to come to the end of themselves?
And have had to realize that they're cast totally on the Lord.
And then they find that He is their strength. But then it goes on to say, In whose heart are the ways of them? And I like the Darby rendering of this. I think it reads in whose heart are the highways?
What does that mean? In whose heart are the highways?
00:30:01
I suggest a thought, not the only thought.
But you and I have a path to walk down here. I cannot sit still.
I either slide backward or I go forward.
There is a highway.
But is that highway in my heart?
What does that mean? Earlier on in this Psalm, we saw that the heart was crying out for the living God.
And I have taken that to mean that if the highway is in my heart, it means that day by day, week by week, month by month, and maybe more frequently, maybe hour by hour.
My path has to be laid before the Lord and there has to be godly exercise.
Godly dependence and seeking his strength.
You know, in North America.
Our culture, if we could say it this way, mitigates against that attitude.
I have been in some parts of the world.
And this is not intended as a criticism, it's just a reflection of the conditions.
That are there where it seems very difficult.
For them to do something right.
And no matter what is being done, it doesn't seem to be done right.
I can well remember picking up a secular magazine some years ago now.
And there had been some criticism leveled, as it often is, at the United States.
I felt it was rather unjustified, but be that as it may, there was a reply to it and a man from the United States was making the point, and it was a good point as far as it went. He was saying no matter what it comes to when the chips are down, when something needs to be done, whether it's putting up a hotel, whether it's building a battleship, whether it's undertaking to do something in the world that needs doing in the right way.
The point, sort of all through the article was our people can do it.
Naturally it's true. Naturally it's true.
And we are living or I am standing right now in a nation which has been accustomed to men who had a go getter sort of attitude. It attracted people who could say, yes, there's an opportunity. And I'm going to use my ingenuity and my ambition and everything I have in order to grasp an opportunity.
But you know, when it comes to the things of God.
Oh, in the words of the hymn, O mine Divine, so must it be that glory all belongs to God.
And God will not have you and me boasting and saying we can do it. If you can't do it, move over, we can do it.
In whose heart are the highways and what's the result?
Who passing through the valley of victory make it a well? Is that what it says?
The Valley of Baker.
Baker, if you look at your margin, means weeping.
Weeping.
And I want to leave some emphasis on that phrase this afternoon, because it is one that naturally we do not like.
The Valley of Weeping.
How many times down through the ages have the Saints of God passed through that valley?
How many times do we read right in the word of God of what they pass through?
If we read perhaps in Hebrews Chapter 11, we find those wonderful examples of faith in the Old Testament, where victories were gained and where there were individuals, it says, who stopped the mouths of lions, quenched, the violence of fire out of weakness were made strong, and so on.
But then it says and others.
And others.
They were also men of faith, but it says they were tortured, not accepting deliverance, and it recounts the various things through which they passed, wandering in dens and caves of the earth, saw and asunder in sheepskins and goatskins. It says, were they men without faith? A deed not the valley of Beca.
00:35:11
And yet, passing through the Valley of Baker, what do they do? They make it. Oh well.
You know a well is a wonderful thing because a well is not only something that the individual who makes the well can drink of, it's there for a long time afterward.
The woman at the well in John 4 remembered where that well had come from.
And she could look back hundreds of years and say, Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well? But there she was still drinking of it, hundreds and hundreds of years later.
General, beloved brethren, I don't know whether I can get this across as I would like, and I hesitate to lay too much emphasis on it because I know how much I need it myself.
But if you and I are going to make wells for others, I suggest that inevitably it will be having to pass through the Valley of Bacon.
Allow an example and only one I could think of a lot.
A name comes to mind of Joseph's Griven.
And many here, or at least some here, will recognize him as the writer of that hymn. What a friend we have in Jesus.
But how did he write those words?
Was it in good circumstances?
Oh my, no, it was very shortly after he had had to stand by.
And watch his bride to be drowned in front of his eyes just a few days before they were married.
And he was in a position where he was unable to do anything to help.
Can you imagine the thoughts and feelings that went through his soul?
But that was in the end. We know that he went to Egypt shortly after that, and the hymn that we sing so freely was written in Egypt, not as a hymn, but as a poem to his mother. In fact, I don't suppose he ever knew in this life that it was ever a hymn, because it wasn't set to music and sung until after he was with the Lord.
But he emigrated to Canada not too long after that, spent most of his life in Canada, actually not too far from where I live. He lived in Port Hope, ON, which is about 100 miles from our home. And there later on in his life, once again, he met up with a girl and was engaged to be married. And you would think, all right, Lord, he's, he's had his opportunity. He's written, he's written the poem.
But once again.
I'm not quite sure why they did it, but she wanted to be baptized and they baptized her in Rice Lake there in Ontario in the month of April.
Makes me cold to think about it. She caught pneumonia and died, and once again she was taken from him, the one whom he expected to marry. He never did get married.
But he left a legacy. He left a well. A well at which thousands of people have drunk.
Ever since he went to be with the Lord, he's been with the Lord many years now, 120 years to be exact.
How many people have drunk of the well that he gave?
And I suggest something to you.
I suggest.
That all our blessings.
Come to us through the obedience and suffering of the Lord Jesus.
But our enjoyment of those blessings?
Comes in the same way.
Let me repeat that all our blessings come to us through the obedience and suffering of the Lord Jesus.
There was one who gave up everything.
Oh, who could compare his valley of Baca with what the Lord Jesus went through?
But oh, what a well he left.
But our enjoyment of those blessings comes in the same way.
00:40:03
Let's not be afraid because the last part of the verse says the rain also filleth the pools.
The thought here is of the early reign.
You know, in the land of Israel they have what is sometimes called a Mediterranean climate, and they would traditionally sow their seed in the fall, and then they would get the early rain in the fall and that would cause it to sprout. But then there would be kind of a damp, cool winter. And then they would look for the latter rain, the rain that would come in the spring that would bring that crop to maturity. And that is why so often in Scripture there is the reference to the early and latter rain.
I'm sure many know that, but it doesn't hurt to repeat it.
This is the early rain here that fills the pools and I have puzzled as to why the latter rain is never mentioned in this book or in this Psalm. I suggest that it is because faith would say that latter rain will come. God doesn't always show me the whole pathway ahead of me, but the rain fills the pools and you know, it has been my experience and maybe yours too.
But excuse me.
That if you are passing through a night of affliction.
Some very difficult times. The Lord says, I'm going to give you some rain just to show you that I'm still there, just to show you that I'm with you.
And it's wonderful to see those rains fill the pools.
Verse seven, they go from strength to strength. Oh, that doesn't mean that I flexed my muscles and say well.
Whatever comes on, I can handle it.
I heard a man once who was running for governor in a state in the United States here.
And someone was saying that are you not concerned about the future? Are you not concerned about some of the problems and difficulties down the road? And he stood there with utmost confidence and said, no way, I'm not afraid of the future, the future, bring it on.
Well, that's fine from a natural point of view. He had some confidence and I suppose he hoped that would rub off on people who were perhaps potential voters.
But God doesn't deal that way with you and me, he says from strength.
To strength, that means I suggest just what we had back in that fifth verse. I have to go to the Lord day by day for strength. I have to say, Lord, I can't handle this myself. Give me the strength.
And then it says everyone of them in Zion, a pureth before God.
Oh, it's beautiful. It's beautiful when we can have that before us, the Lord's presence.
The Lord's presence. And then it says in verse 80, Lord God of hosts.
Hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob.
It's easy in these days of hurry, these busy days, to neglect our prayer life.
But if you and I are going to have any power, there must be prayer.
A brother again long since with the Lord used to remark that a prayerless life.
Is a powerless life.
Why? Because a prayerless life says I can do it. A prayerless life says I have my own strength.
A prayerful life says I am depending not on my own strength, but on the Lord of hosts.
The Lord of Hosts.
Then it puts in that little word sela.
What does that mean?
I can only quote what educated brothers have told us in the past.
And that is that it simply means pause and think about it. Pause and think about it.
Sometimes it's necessary to have a pause, necessary to think about something, to let something sink in.
And so we had that at the end of the fourth verse, which we didn't comment on. We have it at the end of the eighth verse.
But then there's encouragement. We want to dwell on that just for a few moments.
00:45:05
Verse 9 Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face.
Of thine anointed.
What an expression.
Thine anointed.
At first glance when I read this, and I have read it, I suggest a few times.
I thought, who else but the Lord could that refer to?
Who else is worthy to be anointed but the Lord?
And that is true.
But isn't it wonderful that God delights to anoint you and me?
David could say in the 23rd Psalm, Thou anointest my head with oil.
It was customary to anoint people with oil so that the Lord Jesus could reproach the Pharisee for not anointing his head with oil, because that was the courtesy that ought to have been extended to a guest.
Anointed with oil?
And hear the psalmist is not, you might say, taking liberties. The psalmist is not going beyond what he should.
He is addressing the Lord. He is addressing God.
As his shield.
And saying look upon thine anointed.
Oh God delights for you and me to come to Him in intimacy.
Our late brother Merle Graham recently went to be with the Lord.
I well remember probably over 20 years ago now.
When he had a young people's address at a conference like this.
Was the only time that I ever heard him speak at that kind in that kind of a way, in a public way.
I don't mean I didn't hear him take part in his local reading meeting, but I mean as to having an address and standing up. It's the only time I ever heard him speak.
I well remember a remark he made. It stuck with me.
He said God does not appreciate familiarity.
But he loves intimacy.
God does not appreciate familiarity, but He loves intimacy.
Familiarity is presuming to take a place that does not belong to us and is putting ourselves on a level with someone.
With whom we ought to be in a different relationship.
But intimacy recognizes a known relationship.
And acts on it. And oh, there's a lot of familiarity today with the Lord, which is unwarranted and wrong.
But what a wonderful thing it is to approach God in that intimacy in which we have been brought through the finished work of Christ. No, they did not know that when this Psalm was written.
Look upon the face of thine anointed, he says, for a day in thy courts is better than 1000.
Down here we only have a day in his courts, don't we? Down here we have a day in his courts.
But all I say with all my heart to each one here is not a day in his courts better than 1000.
You know, and I know that there are those and my heart goes out to them who say I can't go there anymore or I can't be part of that anymore.
Sometimes it has to do with individuals going off on their own, other times it is going to a place which they know is not according to the Word of God, but their attitude is. I cannot, I will not go there. Oh beloved brethren, if you and I come in the right spirit, we will find that a day in His courts is better than 1000.
Maybe he's only on the outskirts, it says here a doorkeeper. The thought is he's only at the door, he's only on the threshold.
I remember again quoting my late father-in-law. He said if I could go to a Bible conference and just see all the faces and shake hands, it would still be well worth it.
00:50:07
Is that true?
I see a few smiles, a few heads nodding. It is true, isn't it? It is true.
Even if we were only on the threshold, it would be worth it, I thought as I walked into this hotel.
Yesterday what a pleasure it was to walk in and be greeted by brethren whom I knew and loved, and see immediately a number of faces that I recognized.
I had occasion in years gone by to go to medical seminars and things like that from time to time, and it necessitated, of course, staying in hotels, some of them similar to this. I didn't care for it. Oh yes, the medical knowledge was well worth getting, and you went for that reason. But to go into a place where you didn't recognize anyone, to stay in a room all by yourself, to have to intermingle with people for the most part who did not know the Lord?
But what a difference to come with the Lord's own. Oh, if it's only to be on the threshold. Oh, you say I don't fit in.
I haven't got any friends. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes we aren't as friendly as we should be. Sometimes we forget about people. But oh, if we're just on the threshold.
It's better than dwelling in the tents of wickedness, isn't? It's better than this world. 100 times better.
But what about the pathway? Is it sometimes still difficult? Oh, it says the Lord God is a son.
And shield.
Sun and shield? Why does it say a sun and shield?
Oh, because God gives us what we need at the time.
On a good hot day.
You want a shield, don't you?
But if it's a cold day and a brisk wind is blowing, we're glad to see the sun. And the Lord knows how to give just what is needed. He knows how to give just what will be needed. For your encouragement and mine in the circumstances in which we find ourselves. And trust Him, He will do it.
But then there's something even nicer in the next verse. The Lord will give grace.
And glory.
I suppose we could look at that this way. That grace is for the pathway down here.
But glory is at the end.
And if you and I need more grace for the pathway down here, the Lord says I will give it to you. I'll give it to you.
What we have to ask for, we have to want it.
Sometimes we say I need more grace.
But forgive me for saying this, but I've experienced it in my own heart. Deep down inside, there's a thought I'm not going. I don't want that grace right now.
I want to nurse my hurt feelings for a little while and feel sorry for myself. Or I want to nurse that bit of anger, that bit of disgust with this one or that one. And then I'll take the grace a little little further down, Lord, when I've had the chance to nurse that a little bit. Or I want to nurse that bad feeling in my heart.
And sometimes I can nurse it for months and years on end.
Oh, how that shrivels the soul, how that saps our spiritual strength, how that deprives us of the enjoyment of Christ. In fact, I may be going out on a limb here, and I won't object if someone corrects me, but I suggest that bad feeling among the people of God probably does more harm than any other single thing. Now, I don't mean that bad behavior in terms of gross sin.
Isn't serious? It is. I don't mean that bad doctrine isn't serious. It is. But that can be more easily identified, perhaps, and dealt with. But under currents of feelings and undercurrents of things that rob us of the enjoyment of Christ, I am persuaded do more harm and quench the Spirit among us more than any other single thing.
And forgive me if I say that I experience it, and have experienced it in my own heart, but I see it as I travel around among the Saints of God and I can't help but feel it.
00:55:05
And I suggest that what we need to do is ask the Lord for more grace. Oh, it's a wonderful thing to be able to forgive. It's a wonderful thing to be able to get those things out and to get them right and not to harbor them anymore.
And what's the end? Glory. Oh, the glory is ahead. Perhaps very soon. Perhaps very soon.
And then it says that wonderful expression. No good thing will he withhold.
From them that walk uprightly.
No good thing, No good thing. Is there anything that you badly want in life?
He won't withhold it.
If it would be good for you and if you're walking uprightly, oh, doesn't that give peace to the soul? If I really believe that, oh, how often I think that I know what I want.
It's very difficult sometimes when there's something that I badly want.
Maybe it's a job.
Maybe it's a wife or a husband.
Maybe it's something to do with my life in another sphere, and I want it, and I want it badly, and maybe, as far as I can tell, I want it. I think for all the right reasons. Only the Lord knows.
Oh, let's find rest in this. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. And then the Psalm ends. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man.
That trust in thee.
In everything. In everything.
Going back to what our brother Dawn said yesterday, Job had to learn that lesson.
He had to trust, he had to wait for the Lord. He had to have a man like Elihu tell him, Joe, justify God up front. That is where you start. Start with justifying God in everything that he is allowed. And then.
Go to him with the situation and wait for him. Wait for him. Oh, it's hard to wait.
It's hard to wait, sometimes, very hard to wait, but the Lord delights if we wait for Him. Well, May God bless His word to each one of our hearts, and may we by grace seek before Him.
To appreciate continually.
The collective aspect, as we had exemplified in the beginning of this Psalm.
If necessary, the pathway of suffering that we may have to go through.
In order to get to where He is and finally to enjoy in our hearts His provision for us along the way and the glory at the end.
Our time is gone, but maybe we can sing part of another hymn.
It's an unusual hymn to give out at this meeting.
150 The last two verses.
Verses 5 and six yet loving thee, on whom his love ineffable.
Doth rest the worshippers, O Lord, above is one with thee are blessed.
Of the vast universe of bliss, the center, thou and Son, the eternal theme of praise is this to heaven's beloved. 10 May we have that before our souls. 150 the last two verses. And I don't think we can sit down for this hymn.
1 Corinthians 11:17-
Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
How all things shine in light. Divine for those who've seen his face.
Stayed by joy divine as Harley and fills his day through scenes of strife and desert life. We tread in peace our way #12.
00:05:20
Starts a new subject.
First Corinthians Chapter 11, verse 7.
Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not that you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the Church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe that for there must be also a heresies among you, that they which are proved may be made manifest among you.
When you come together therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper, or in eating. Everyone taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. What have you not houses to eat and drink in, or despise you the Church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.
For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.
That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he'd break it and said, Gee, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup when he had stopped saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye?
As often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
Or as often as you eat this bread and drink this coffee, do show the Lord's death till he comes. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself.
Not discerning the Lord's body for this cause, many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, tarry one for another, and if any man hunger, let him eat at home that you come not together under condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come.
Tomorrow morning.
We will come together.
To remember him.
That is the most precious meeting that we have.
That's the one thing he's asked us to do.
Remember Me?
That's the foundation of all our blessing.
When he was on that cross bearing the judgment of a holy God against sin.
And that cry of abandonment, My God, my God, wise, thou forsaken me.
We look back, we remember, we remember every other thought we dismissed from our minds Any thoughts that involve us or our troubles or problems have no place there. We're there to remember him. What a privilege. And isn't it sad that the the largest percentage of Protestant Christendom doesn't do that anymore?
Were very, very seldom.
But we do it every first day of the week, because that's the day that he rose from the dead and became the mighty victor over.
00:10:01
Sin and Death and.
Judgment. He bore it all. Then we had the privilege of just just narrowing our thoughts to just that one thing himself.
What he bore and judged was judged for to bring us into blessing. Satan hates that. And that's why so few are still doing it in Christendom. They've replaced it with ministry.
We don't go to hear a minister. We don't go to hear the word of God expounded. That may come at the end of the meeting and and be there in a proper way, but we're not there for that. We're not there to hear some gifted brother minister the word. We're there to remember our precious Savior.
Early Church.
Did it every Lord's day on the first day of the week when the disciples came together.
To break bread.
What they came for, not to, as Chuck said, not to hear a preacher, not to hear wonderful sermon, though that might have been available. But the purpose of their coming was at that time to remember the Lord Jesus and His death as He requested that we do this, we delight him. This is the meeting that our fellowship is built around to.
Remember.
What it cost the Lord Jesus enter into it is.
As much as we can, at least.
To remember the suffering when God laid on him.
The iniquity of us all and we that's something that we can hardly, we cannot comprehend at all. I know I have committed many, many sins, hundreds, hundreds, thousands, but.
When I sin, God looks at Calvary at 12 noon.
To three in the afternoon, in the darkness, he laid on him every stroke of judgment that I deserve.
What a privilege it is. I would not want to give this up for anything.
And yet here in Corinth.
It's evident that they were doing just what our brother Chuck has been saying. They weren't substituting public ministry and yet there were things that needed to be corrected, weren't there? Sad to say, there was.
Wrong way that they were going about it. And thus we get what we have here. And so we talked about submission this morning. But if we could use another word that begins with an S here. We have sobriety brought before us, don't we? How do we come together to remember the Lord? It's not a question here, if we could put it this way in the 11Th chapter of Who is at the table, but rather the remembrance of Himself.
The question of who is at the table is settled in the 10th chapter, and it's a mistake to pretend that that Scripture, and we're anticipating that, says let a man examine himself and so let him eat, provides everyone the right to decide whether he or she should partake of the emblems or not. That's not the thought, is it? Here we have those who were already at the table, but then the question is, how do we come together?
And so here the apostle has to correct some of those things that were causing disorder and spoiling that precious remembrance which is our brother has said ought to be the highlight, you might say ought to be the place.
When we come together, above all else to give the Lord what is due to Him.
It's not gift that is in exercise at the Lord's Table. It's priesthood. We are all functioning as priests to give to him the worship and the praise and the adoration that he deserves.
It might be helpful if someone would just distinguish between what we have in the 10th chapter and the 11Th chapter.
In connection with the Lord's Table and the Lord's Supper. Go ahead, Jim. Well, I'm happy to hear what others have to say, but just let's go back to the 10th chapter for a moment because I think it's important to understand these things he says. I speak as to wise men. Judge ye what I say. And so we've been given divine intelligence and the Spirit of God to make these things good to our souls. Just notice what it says in the 16th verse of the 10th chapter.
00:15:21
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. And then just notice the 21St verse. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partaker. This is what I want to notice of the Lord's table and the table of devils. And so here we find in the 10th chapter.
Before he takes up the question of the Lord's Supper that we have in the 11Th chapter, he takes up the question of the Lords table, because the Lords Table is where we are to eat of the Lords Supper. Now, a table in Scripture perhaps denotes several things. It would speak perhaps of fellowship. We sit down at one another's table and we have fellowship one with another. It speaks of authority too. And you notice here, it's not Christ's table, it's not the table of Jesus, but it's the Lord's table. It is where the Lord's authority is to be owned.
And recognized if I come and sit down at Brother Chuck's table and to enjoy a meal, who has the authority at that table? Do I have authority at that table? No, it's Brother Chuck that has the authority. It would be very out of order for me to invite someone else to sit down at Brother Chuck's table. You say Jim has no right to invite anybody there. It's not his table. It's Brother Chuck that does the inviting.
If I act in a way that is not in keeping with conduct that he feels is suitable for his table.
Then He has every right to ask me to leave or to go and clean up my conduct and return before I return again. He has the the authority, and so it's the Lord's table. But what I want to notice too is that when he takes up the subject of the Lord's Table, the cup and the loaf are reversed as to what we have in the next chapter where it's the Lord's Supper. Now if we were to go back to the 22nd of Luke after the Passover supper was concluded, the Lord took.
A low 1St and then a cup. And he said this do in remembrance of Maine.
And that's the way we always celebrate it. That's the way the Lord instituted it, and that is the way that we always celebrate it according to His word. But we might ask ourselves, why is the cup first in the 10th chapter and then the loaf? Well, I believe simply because first of all, the cup which speaks of the blood of Christ, is our title to be at the Lord's table. What is it that makes us fit for tomorrow morning to sit down in the Lord's presence at the Lord's table?
Is it any worthiness of ourselves? No, brethren, let's never think it's any worthiness of ourselves. It is the blood of Christ that was shed on Calvary's cross, of which the cup speaks, that gives us our title to be there. We sometimes sing a hymn, connection with a future day, Our title to glory we read in Thy blood. We're going to be gathered around the Lamb in the coming day based on the blood of Christ. And that's our basis now for acceptance at His table.
And then the loaf is given second, because it has a little different significance here than it does in the in connection with the Lord's Supper. The loaf in connection with the Lords Table represents to us every member of the body of Christ, every believer, every blood bought St. alive on the face of the earth. And so he says as we read. For we being many are one Brad and one body. And brethren, when we look at that loaf tomorrow morning.
It's not going to be crackers, it's not going to be wafers, it's not going to be several loaves.
It's going to be one loaf in recognition that God says there is one body. As outwardly fragmented as things have become, there is one body. And if we lose sight of that, brethren, we become narrow and sectarian in our view. But then just very quickly, and others can expand on this, but when we come over to the Lord's Supper, the loaf is given 1St and then the cup. And as I say, that's the way the Lord instituted it. It's the way we always celebrate it.
00:20:02
And the cup again speaks of his precious blood. But the loaf which we break, give thanks for, and break first in the Lord's Supper represents to us the Lorde body given in death for us, a little different significance than we have in connection with the Lords Table. In the Lords Table it's every believer alive on the face of the earth. We see that one loaf, there is one body. We take that loaf and we break it as a reminder of the Lord's body given in death for us.
And then the cup is given separate because the separation of the blood from the body was the proof of death, and so again, it's not all combined in one.
It's given separate the low 1St and then the cup, so one is the Lord's Supper of the Lord's Table.
And then in this chapter, the Lord suffered when the Lord instituted it in Luke 22, the the loaf and the and the cup represented his personal body. The truth of the one body didn't exist yet, didn't exist until Acts chapter 2 when the Holy Spirit came down and united into one body. And the Spirit of God filled the house where they were sitting, and then he filled everyone individually. That's Christianity.
So that's what you have in the 10th chapter, isn't it? And that comes first before the supper, because it sets before us the the new place that we've been brought into, isn't it? So that's wonderful.
As Mr. Ballard said, he said, let us remember it is the same feast, it's the same act. Being a partaker of the Lord's Table is the same physical act as.
Taking the Lord's Supper, it's physically the same act. So even though we see two separate things in the doctrine nicely brought out and been laid before us.
What we're doing is not two separate things. It is the same feast, and I think we tend to let that slip away in our thoughts sometimes as we take those two aspects of this feast up.
They're together, is what you're saying, isn't it, Steve? It's the the table is the place where we celebrate the supper. The supper is what we celebrate at that place. They go together. But it's important to realize that God hasn't allowed us the liberty to choose whatever place we would like to do it in. It's the Lord's table.
And so we find it as a place of fellowship. It's the fellowship of the blood of Christ. It's the fellowship of the body of Christ. That's the place, the divine place where it's to be celebrated. But then the what we celebrate is the Lord's Supper.
Now who has title?
Do they have to join something?
They are joined the moment they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit to the Body of Christ.
And so if they are washed in that precious blood, they have the title. Whether they are there or not, they have the title.
Even if they don't understand all these things we're talking about if they're cleansed by the blood of Christ.
They're at the table. They have the right to remember the Lord in his death. And who are we? It's not our table, it's his table. Who are we to say you can't, you can't break bread here? That sometimes that's happened amongst us and that's wrong, that makes a sect out of us.
Although there is a responsibility to those who are breaking bread to judge what is not of God.
Anything that is plainly contrary to Christianity, or morally or doctrinally.
Should be judged. That should be judged.
Yes, and it's because it's because it's the Lords Table. That's right. I do not set the standards there, nor do you. That's right, it is. We respect what the Lord has set out in his word. We're to exclude evil. Evil is a thing that is not fit for the presence of God and his people and all those institutions under the Levitical order in the Old Testament taught that that sin, evil was not a thing. Fit. I say again, for the presence of God or the presence of his people.
00:25:07
That's why on the Day of Atonement, when the matter of sin was taken up, the bodies of those beasts were taken outside the camp and burned. It had to be dealt with outside the camp. And so Jesus suffered without the gate and so on. But it's not that we exclude true believers from the Lord's table. What we do exclude is evil. And if that means there are believers that we cannot have fellowship with that the Lord's Table, then on the authority of the word of God, we have to say so be it.
We can say to them, if you are a real believer, your place is at the Lord's Table. But there is something that is consistent with being there and that is holiness of walk and and doctrine too is important.
There are two expressions we use sometimes taking our place at the Lord's Table.
And giving expression to the truth, and we find those really developed in First Corinthians 10 because as has been pointed out.
It is the blood that gives us right and title. It gives us our place there. And we see every believer in that loaf and we give expression to that truth by partaking of that loaf because it says for we being many are one bread, for we are all partakers of that one loaf. So if I come and I don't partake of that loaf, I'm not giving expression to what is true of me. Or if I'm allowing something in my life and I say, well, I don't want to partake of that because.
I'm going to be judged if I partake of that then really I'm allowing myself something in my life that is inconsistent with what is true of me. And so we we well we never judge a person as to their intelligences to these facts. Paul desired that they be not we not just get into a religious routine the way people do things in this do things by habit, but he says I speak as to wise men. Judge ye what I say he wants us to be intelligent what we're doing.
And why we're doing it?
Not just to do it because it's a religious habit.
Found that the chapter, the chapter, the chapter, this chapter.
Begin by saying be follower of me even as I also am of Christ. We should do that not because of what people want us to do is we want to be the imitator as if it were. We want to do it because we love to do it knowing that our blessed Savior have died for us. I was thinking as we were speaking on this too in regard to obedience of Speaking of the the servant in the 16th in the 21St chapter of Exodus, we'll find there is an example there of how it was from his heart.
Of that obedience, perhaps we can just turn to it to call that verse Exodus chapter 21.
Notice the order that he put in there. Exodus chapter 21, verse 5.
This, this, this servant put in his sense. And if thy servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I would not go free. What we find here is that it was truly of his heart. He knew what his heart, what the the 1St and the foremost important part of his heart was that it was the master.
Does that mean he didn't love his children? No. He said it's the master. He knew the order of things that ought to be so he said I love my master. And then he said his wife and then his children. So as we sit here in Lord's Day mourning, do we know why we are here? Is it because we come? Is it because we come because our parents are coming? Is it because our friends are here? Or do we truly acknowledge the fact that.
The Lord have done so much for us that He want us to be here, and that is His request, His dying request that this do in remembrance of me.
In the verses before, from verse 17 through 22, we find that there's disorder in Corinth as to what they were doing. Some were eating on one side and others on the other side were hungry. Some were even drunk. And he says in the end of verse 20, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper, that he says the way you're doing it is not.
00:30:07
The way it's to be done then he says from verse 23 on those verses we so often read the way it is to be done. And I think it is beautiful what you mentioned, Dave, that each time it says this do in remembrance of me. Sometimes we speak of remembering the Lord in his death, which I don't think is wrong, but it's in remembrance of.
Me, because He's not dead, He's living, and we're to be occupied with a living Christ in the glory, and then to remember through those emblems what it costs to bring us into relationship with Him. So it says at the end of these verses, we show the Lord's death by partaking of the loaf and of the car. But oh brethren.
Isn't it a privilege to sit down?
And allow the Spirit of God's liberty to lead our thoughts as to who He is, the glories of His person. We're going to be occupied with Him forever, brethren. We're going to revel in all that He is for us. And that was displayed, perhaps as in no other point of time, on the cross of Calvary, who that glorious person is.
How much did he love us?
Is so wonderful is to sit down and allow the Spirit of God sometimes leading our thoughts, perhaps in the theme of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God or as the Son of God. Whatever way he leads us is to allow ourselves to be remembering him, that glorious person.
You might ask.
From this day, however.
Someone say something louder please. Oh.
Question is.
Are you saved?
That's a question put to everyone in this room. Are you saved? Are you a member of the body of Christ?
Yes or no?
If your answer is yes.
Why don't you break bread? If you don't break bread, next question, do you break bread? No, you're saved. You're a member of the body of Christ. You don't break bread. Why? He asked you to. He asked you to. He said I want you to Remember Me. You don't have to have a lot of intelligence. You don't have to understand all the things that those of deeper understanding. No, that's not important.
But you want to remember him, You want to answer to his desire. Why don't you?
When you get to heaven, you'll have missed the opportunity.
To remember him down here.
Tremendous privilege. The greatest privilege we have.
Down here to remember him and his death. And I know there are some I've observed that sit there every large day and they pass the pass the loaf and pass the cup. I don't understand why I think that person saved. Maybe not. Maybe that's true of you. Why not? If it's true of you, why don't you answer to his request? We're not asking you there. We're not inviting you there. He's inviting you there.
I think one of the different.
If I may speak, and I could be wide of the mark, but I have spoken to young people occasionally and some feel that.
Their lives and behaviour will suddenly be put under the magnifying glass, if you like, and they'll have to go through a bit of an ordeal and be visited by some brothers and grilled as to how much they understand and so on. All of which, of course, as we have pointed out, is not really the point. Because.
It's good to know why we want to remember the Lord, but it's not a question of intelligence. But sometimes is it possible that when we are young we feel, no, I don't want to be put in that position.
Permit me to tell a story that I happen to know because I married into the family but.
00:35:04
There was a young man who was not remembering the Lord many, many years ago.
His name was Harry Hayle.
And this would, of course, have been well over 100 years ago. And he did not want to remember the Lord because, believe it or not, there were some things in his life that he had a question about, and he knew that his brethren might well raise an issue with him.
And one verse he said arrested him, and that was that verse. We don't need to turn to it, but it's in Second Timothy 2 That says let everyone that nameth the name of Christ or in the Darby, it's the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Oh, he thought, it doesn't say let everyone that breaketh bread depart from iniquity.
It says that everyone that nameth the name of the Lord, he said I'm responsible whether or not I am breaking bread. I have been baptized. I take the place of being a Christian. I have a responsibility. I cannot go on with anything that is contrary to the mind of the Lord just because I can excuse myself by saying, well, you can't say anything to me because I'm not breaking bread.
Well, we don't. I don't believe the reception to the Lords table ought to be used as a means of micromanaging everyone elses lives. That's a mistake. But at the same time it's a wonderful thing to to remember the Lord. And I would encourage anyone here who is not breaking bread, don't shy away from it and think that somehow you're going to be put through a grilling session or be.
Requests make their the desire of their hearts perhaps to work in the Spirit of God as being real with you that you just desire to remember in his death well.
It's on your side and your brethren are on your side. They desire you to go on. They desire just to be encouraged in that way and so don't have that fear of the brethren, so to speak, but trust in the Lord is a place of safety and he'll bless her exercise apart. Would you allow to brother Bill, It's just a little addendum to what you said and what Robert has just said that if.
Expressed a desire to remember the Lord to our brethren.
And they do sit down and want to have a visit and a few questions that rather than letting that frighten us, be thankful that our brethren are careful. Because really that's what our brethren, I think desire. Maybe sometimes we who are older do come across a little austere or in a way or in an attitude that is perhaps not what it should be. But really, young person, if your brethren have some questions, they're really desire to be careful because, as we said.
00:40:08
Doctrinal, ecclesiastical and moral evil needs to be carefully excluded from the Lord's table. And that's why it says of the Lord Jesus that he says a man taking a a journey into a far country who gave authority to his servants, to every man, his work, and commanded the porters to watch. And I'm thankful for those who are porters in the assembly under the Levitical order there were quarters and they were very careful and watchful.
If they were carrying out their function before God, careful and watchful to disallow, to exclude those things from the temple and the service of God that were not according to his mind. And so I just say that perhaps your brethren sometimes do come across in a way that they don't intend, but really deep down they have an exercise to be careful and deep down they really desire to see you take your place and remember the Lord Jesus in answer to his request. Would you allow that bill?
Very definitely. And whenever I have spoken to people sometimes that have objected to the care that we take at the Lord's Table, I say, well, would you want to break bread with everyone that comes along? Can you think of people who would not be suitable to come and break bread? Oh, yes. Well then don't object to the care being taken. And I suppose it's more necessary today than it was in the day when this was written because there were no divisions.
And so if you were in Corinth and you were a believer, brethren knew who you were. And in that sense, perhaps they didn't have to take quite the same care as we do today because people were known. But today we don't know everyone. But I do say this, that Scripture does not prescribe any formula for receiving to the Lord's table. And I hope this doesn't step on any toes, but there's no formula that says there has to be a formal visit by two brothers with a young person if they're well known to everyone. And it's not a large assembly.
I know in our local assembly we don't always have a formal visit with someone that asked to remember the Lord. If their life and their behavior is very well known, there's there's hardly a need for it. So the Lord, I believe gives guidance in every circumstance, but we don't have to follow any special protocol, do we?
I want to give you 2 examples.
And that's the person that comes to the meeting totally unknown to the brethren, a stranger, a complete stranger. And since the brethren don't know the that person, they passed the law and they passed the cup. Then he gets all, he gets very angry. I'm a real Christian, but we didn't know that.
And we, we have to get to know you. And then there's another case where one comes there and he just, he just sits there. He looks everything over. He wants to see how the meeting is going. He's gone to many. And then they go up to him and say, do you, do you want to break bread? You can break bread with us. Then he would say to them, you're not the place I'm looking for. I want you to say no because I don't know you and you don't know me.
And until we know each other, I don't want to break bread because I don't want to break bread with evil. That's the other side of the coin. And we don't usually address that side of the coin. But he was going around. He knows he's in Christendom. He knows there's all kinds of error out there. He wanted to identify himself with a group of Christians that were following the word of God scripturally. And so he said, if you had asked me to break bread, I know this wasn't the place I was looking for.
When I was teaching and I had three students in, the transformer blew up and we went to the coffee shop and one of them, I had once broken bread with his father and another company many years ago. I said, how's your father? And he said always reaching sinless perfection. And I kind of shrank. Remember when Mr. McDowell said, I'd like to talk to your wife about that, but.
So I turned him and I said, well, that was whatsoever is born of God cannot sin. The Lord couldn't sin. And then another one sitting there who was from a well known evangelical church in town said, oh, the Lord could sin. And I just was shrinking in my seat from the Polish Catholic put his head between his knees and that our blessed Lord couldn't sin. So I kind of moved my chair over towards him and put my arm around him and I said I'm with him. But we're living in such confusing days as Brother Chuck said, why would anybody want to come and break bread with us if we didn't know what we held?
00:45:00
I can give a little emphasis to the aspect in the 23rd verse. The Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed or delivered up.
Took bread.
It's well for us to have a sense in our souls in the remembrance of the Lord and and encouraging others to take their proper place there and do it.
That the Lord Jesus himself draws our hearts to it.
By his love and his desire.
What is the circumstance in which he instituted it? The night in which he was delivered up?
And the Lord is at word to my soul, he says on Lord's Day. Morning, Donald, let's go back there.
Let's go back there together in remembrance.
And the Lord Jesus was under the greatest pressure.
Of the end of his life he knew what was before him. He said with desire, I have desired to do this with you before I suffer. And he went out from the presence of that last or the Passover, and that first remembrance, into the night of his betrayal.
It was an agony to his soul to have Judas walk out.
Now is the power of darkness, and he knew it.
But as he could say in one place, will you also go away? That is, the Lord Jesus felt what was before his soul, and it meant something to Him to have those that loved Him be with him in that hour.
And while that's past historically, yet he says to us in the lamentations, my soul hath them still in remembrance. And so the Lord Jesus would draw our hearts with himself together to go back over that, that time in his life, and then in the emblems themselves in his death, and remember Him. And brethren, if our hearts are really attached to him. And I think that's what we need to emphasize with souls that would draw their hearts not to.
All the necessary care that has been brought before us, and it is necessary and it is necessary for us to understand it.
We should not belittle that, but at the same time, what draws a soul, you might say, to forget themselves, forget their question of worthiness and everything else, is if the heart is truly drawn out to where he was himself, and say it was the night in which he was betrayed or the night in which he was delivered up that he did this.
And it is a question of the heart, as you say. And I sometimes think, on Lord's Day morning, are our hearts no more affected as we sing those good scriptural hymns that bring before us the person and work of Christ? As Scripture is read concerning the circumstances of His crucifixion, as things are expressed in worship and praise by one another, are our hearts no more stirred than to sit there?
Week after week and his brother Chuck said let the loaf and the cup go by.
I sometimes think of the way the poet put it. He said, And where is the heart so hardened? And who is so vile as he that seeth the Savior suffer? And Seth, that is nothing to me. And that question is raised in lamentations. Is it nothing to you? You know, brethren, I think it would be a good question to read every Lord's Day morning, the remembrance. Is it nothing to you? Is it nothing to me? Are our hearts, I say, no more affected by the person and work of Christ?
That we have no desire. He hasn't commanded us in the sense of what we usually think as a command. He simply says this do and he leaves it for the response of our hearts. Now let's and my own soul too, I might partake of the loaf in the cup tomorrow morning, but does my heart truly respond? Is it a true remembrance and a true response to that request this do in remembrance of me?
00:50:01
It challenges my own soul. It exercises me, brethren.
Perhaps it'll exercise you too.
Stronger than?
Our commandment, he said. I command you to Remember Me, he says. He just expresses that desire. That ought to be stronger than a commandment.
There is one other thing times hinders us and maybe those of us who are gathered to the Lords name and we remember the Lord and you just feel sometimes I just can't go because there's trouble. And I was thinking of the night in which the Lord was betrayed. Our brother Dawn just referred to it, but maybe we could turn back to Luke.
22 And then to the 116th Psalm.
But there were two things that had happened on that night, and yet it nevertheless did not change the Lord's desire to have his own around him.
Verse 21 Behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me at the table.
And that was one thing, and then their other thing in the 24th verse. And there was also a strife among them. Which of them should be accounted the greatest? Well, these two things were. There were these two undercurrents. But they ought not to rob us of wanting to bring to the Lord what is due to Him. And the great remedy to this is to give to the Lord what belongs to Him. Let's look at the 116th Psalm.
In this connection.
Because it is only a privilege that we have here in this life. Verse nine, I will walk before the land before the Lord and the land of the living. I believe, therefore I've spoken. I was greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, all men are liars. Well, that's a pretty bleak picture.
He believes, he speaks, and then the trouble comes, and then he says, Well, what, everybody? I can't trust anybody. And then he said, What will I render unto the Lord for all his benefits to me? He says.
I will take the cup of salvation. I will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my choice vows unto the Lord. Now in the presence of all his people. And as we as brother Jim, as you spoke of the Lord's table and what his brother's different brothers have spoken of what is represented at the Lord's table, Every believer is represented there. And so it seems like a contradiction. He said, I said all men were liars and yet there was a place where in the presence of all gods people.
He could render to the heart of God what God wanted. And we should never, ever let difficulties. I'm not saying we shouldn't deal with evil, but we should never, ever let difficulties constrain our hearts to seek to go to the Lord and to give to the Lord what belongs to Him.
Yet there's I told one couple that left the Lord's table. I said there's no perfect group of Christians this side of glory. Now I don't say that to excuse anything, but I would like to make this comment too, if you'll allow me. And before we pass on, and that is I have heard people say I can remember the Lord in my heart. Now brethren, that's true. And I trust every day, more than once a day, we remember in our hearts, in our souls what the Lord Jesus has done for us at Calvary's cross. We need to keep it ever before us. It's the ground of all our blessings.
And the ground of a happy eternity that we're going to enjoy with Christ and so on. But there is something physical that the Lord has asked us to do.
To remember him, to show his death till he come. Just notice in these verses. Notice in verse 24.
And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, now take notice this take eat. I want you to notice that word eat. Now notice that the end of verse 25 as often as she now notice this drink. And then he sums it up in 26 For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, I sometimes said, I wish the words eat and drink were in capital letters in our Bibles because.
Yes, we ought to remember the Lord in our hearts at all times, not just on Lords Day morning. But there is, brethren, something that He has instituted so that we can physically show forth His death, show to this world that we honor the one that they cast out. They spit in his face, they set away with him, crucify him. They took him outside the walls of Jerusalem and nailed him to a Roman cross.
00:55:17
They thought they were rid of him. They didn't want the Lord Jesus. They treated him as sin itself by taking him outside those walls.
And having Him crucified. But brethren, there's a way that you and I can show forth His death in this world. Not when we get to glory. We're not going to need it, as someone has already said. But there is a way in the scene on this planet where they cast Him out and rejected Him, that you and I can do something to show forth His death till He comes. He's asked us to eat and to drink. And again I say, does it mean no more to our hearts than just to sit there and perhaps remember in our hearts?
But not respond to this request that has the power of a command to a heart that is full of love, and to eat and to drink of the loaf and the cup.
Two, as it struck my own heart.
On the original breaking of bread.
The loaf was in the hand of the Lord Jesus Himself.
And it is he which reached it out and said take.
Eat. The cop was in his hand. He reached it out for the soul to drink, and we need to, as it were. Yes, we know it's passed from one to the other and so on in a physical sense today, but in our hearts we need to receive it as if it was his hand that was giving it to us to do.
And so the Lord Jesus, the tomorrow morning, if we are left here.
In spirit at least, as it were. When it comes to us, he puts his hand out to us and he says take.
He another just aspect for the heart in it, brethren, is.
It's really struck my own heart in lamentations the the verse that's been quoted twice now is it nothing to you? All ye that passed by, behold, and see if there's any sorrow like unto my sorrow. Think of it this way. The Lord Jesus is physically hanging on a cross, and you are called to pass below him.
And he looks down at you as he hangs the.
And he says, is it nothing to you?
This is my body which is given for you as you look at him, up at him, really as he looks down at you. And there he says from his own heart he knew there were those sitting watching.
Sitting down, they watched him there. But for you it is to pass as it were in front of him and have him look at you and say, is it nothing?
And then, as it were in the other sense, take, eat.
Oh, I believe that when the heart is constrained in that way, then whatever difficulties there are in the soul, or hesitations and so on, the desire will overcome it, so that there will be the response to him.
It's slight salvation. So often we're so thinking about ourselves and how it affects us. Forget yourself, forget how it affects you.
Think how it affects him. Think how he cares about it. It's his desire for you.
That's what you want to think about. Not yourself, not your reaction, even. There will be a reaction, but it will be the constraining power of his own love to your heart if it's done for him.
And if it was a command, then we we might have to say to our parents or someone like that, I have to go. But it's not a command. He wants us to say I want to go, I want to remember him. It can't be a command because it would not satisfy him.
If you look at it from yourself and you try to make a command out of it, you rob it of what His desire is. Do you do something if someone really loves? Yes, obedience requires there are commandments, but the Lord Jesus in this instance would not be satisfied in His own soul if He had to make a command out of it.
01:00:23
He can only be satisfied if our heart responds to him.
And so he presents it to us. He says take heed and he depends. He depends on the response of love in our hearts to do it.
But it would not satisfy him if he had to command us to do it.
But David's men, when David said I want the well, the affection in their heart, they risk their lives to do it for David. And that's the spirit of it, that if you will put it that way, we would risk our lives to do it if it required that, because we know it's something that's supremely satisfies his own heart.
And it wouldn't satisfy our heart either. If David had commanded those men to get him a drink, they would have done it out of a sense of duty. But they might have shaved under it and said, why is he putting it at us at risk like this? And what right does he have? But brethren, when we reach the heart truly responds.
Not only, as Dawn said, is his heart satisfied, but our heart is satisfied as well.
As there in verse seven, I watch and M as a Sparrow alone upon the housetop. And so there was never a man that was alone ever in life as the Lord was. He was alone on the housetop. He was alone and between those.
Noon and 3:00 alone and he bore the judgment for our sins. But you know what's precious? Luke chapter 22 is being referred to, but there it says in verse 28.
It says, Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. Oh, how he values the company of his disciples with him, and he prayed to his Father in John's Gospel chapter 17. He says, Father, I will that they also whom thou has given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. Oh, he wanted his own to be with him. And So what a privilege it is for us to have that.
Companionship with the Christ and at His table to remember the Lord Jesus in the circumstances of His death. He longs for your company and for mine.
Brought out by Brother Chuck earlier on that.
The thought I believe you brought out early on was that we should come not to dwell on ourselves, but on our blessed Savior of what he had done for us. Sometimes to even in the giving of the hymns, we we tend to sing some of the hymns more about us. But it should be him I'd like to go back to.
Perhaps just a little bit in Lamentation, that portion that was quoted a number of times, Lamentations chapter one. We see that in here. It's not just about us that He looked at and asked us to feel for his sorrows. We see too that there is the other side is how God looked at all this as well and we should try to enter in a small way into that. I'm going to read this verse 12 and 13. I know verse 14 is connected with it. Just to save time, you read those two verses.
Lamentations, chapter one, verse 12. Is that nothing to you? All ye that pass by, behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. That's how well we often stopped. Well, let's read on. Which is done unto me, where was the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of my of his fierce anger from above have he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against me.
He had spread a net for my feet, He had turned me back, He had made me desolate and faint all the day. Well, here we have the picture of the Lord Jesus being that perfect burnt offering before God as well. God looked at that as one who would fully satisfy Him. We see here being reminded how from above there is that burnt offering.
As he's standing there as if it were his feet above the net. Well, what can we think of when we see the net? Or could it be the picture of the brazen altar? Halfway between the brazen altar, what do we see? We see that woven net where the fire was put on. So here perhaps we can have a small taste of this one, who was the perfect burnt offering. There we see from above the fire was sent. Often we say that the fire consumed the sacrifice, but here?
01:05:33
The sacrifice consumed the fire. So we can go back to our chapter. Then we can see how this portion begins. Let's go back to our chapter, verse 23. Now we will remind how the Lord is the one that sent it out. He wanted us to have this remembrance. So verse 23 said, for I have received of the Lord, that which also I deliver unto you, we have the authority as well.
That the Lord has given to the apostle so that we can be able to come and and enjoy and be able to look back to that cross to remember what He has done for us.
And it is as often, and I think that needs to be stressed because when you read the book of the Acts and the early history of the brethren, you find that it very quickly became their exercise and joy, as we've had mentioned in the in the 20th chapter of Acts to come together on the first day of the week to break bread. And when the Lord Jesus, when the Spirit of God records here as often and the Lord Jesus instituted the feast himself in the upper room.
He knew not only what the hearts of his own on that occasion were like, but he anticipated what my heart would be like, and he knew that I was going to need a reminder and that I was going to need it often. And I think this is one of the most precious things about being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is that we have this privilege of breaking bread not just once a month, not just twice a year or on a special occasion or something like that.
But again, we have a pattern of things laid down so that on every first day of the week he's provided a way. And when it says, brethren, till he come, he wouldn't say till he come if he wasn't going to provide a scriptural ground on which to do it.
Sometimes the excuse is given. Well, the testimonies in ruin, and things are so fragmented and broken up that it doesn't matter anymore, brethren, things are in ruin. The testimony is in ruin, and we're part of it. We have to hang our head in shame and humility. Things are outwardly fragmented and broken up. But, brethren, I say again, he wouldn't ask us to partake of the Lord's Supper at the Lord's table till he comes if he wasn't going to provide a scriptural ground on which to do it.
And that ought to be an encouragement and comfort to our hearts.
Holy brethren, we are together to study prophecy. Before they got into their subject, they broke bread. They remembered the Lord and His death every day of the week. I believe they they did that.
We're told in the 20th chapter of Acts that on the first day of the week they broke bread. It settled down to that but I've I've often wondered where it says in verse 23, for I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. The apostle Paul received something that the others didn't. It would seem from this and.
Something that would would correct the habit.
That is in Christendom, where many will just remember the Lord once a year, or once every three months or six months, or whatever.
What this passage brings before us is that this is an ongoing thing.
It's not that well, we've we've remembered the Lord. Now we don't have to do it again, but we do we do not that we have to, but we want to. We desired it. And I believe that's that's sort of explains what maybe someone has another thought on that. I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. I used to think, why isn't that in the 10th chapter? Because in the 10th chapter he's bringing out the truth of the one body not here. Maybe someone has a thought on that.
Except my thought is that it's an ongoing thing. It's an ongoing thing, not once done and then you're done. Like baptism, you're baptized once. You're not baptized over over again every week or every year or anything like that. Just once. But the Lord's Supper is to be taken. And, and brethren, they used to, they used to remember the Lord every day. But I think in Acts 20, it settles it for us that the first day of the week when he rose from the dead, when he became the mighty conqueror and victor.
01:10:29
That's the time to celebrate his death on resurrection ground. That's where we are.
When we went back on, explained that nicely about what his thought was in connection with her. I've received of the Lord if he'd repeat what he said.
To repeat it, I don't know which part of the comment go ahead.
I was relying on you, I.
I'd like to give a thought. I've had a connection with that expression. I have received the Lord, that which also I delivered unto you.
When Saul got saved and his name was changed to Paul, he went the Lord was a three years that he was sent into the desert.
And then he went up to Jerusalem.
And he saw, I think it was with Peter for 15 days.
What do you think they talked about? I know I don't want to try to read too much into it, but.
I'm sure that.
Saul never knew the Lord in this world.
And.
I think that Peter told him about his time with the Lord.
And about the last night when he said this due in remembrance of me.
And so I'm sure that Paul heard that from not only from Peter, but from John and the others.
And the Last Supper.
When they were with the Lord there.
But that wasn't enough.
He needed it from the Lord himself. And so he says here I have received to the Lord that which also I deliver unto you. And I must say for myself, I've been encouraged on occasions when there have been young people that have asked to remember the Lord in the assembly where I'm from.
And you go and you visit them, and you find out in when you talk to them that there's a real exercise that has been going on deep in their soul about remembering the Lord.
And in that way, they have received it from the Lord. It's not because of somebody who has, who would say, it's time for you to remember the Lord. And just as Paul received it from the Lord, so for everyone it is.
Receive Christ as Savior first, and then to receive it from a Lord Himself. This do in remembrance of me.
That's very precious to you.
It makes me think Saul of Tarsus was, for he first was confronted by the Lord on his way to Damascus.
Saul saw what persecutest thou may. Who art thou, Lord? I'm Jesus, whom thou persecutest. First time he saw him he was in glory, but then he received it from the Lord. I want you to Remember Me in my death.
Remember Me and my dad, not in the glory, but Remember Me in my death. Maybe that's a thought. And I it's very nice.
It's not until you have a problem, it's not until there's a big blow up amongst brethren, it's until he comes again. We are to be exercised to do it and like Bill was mentioning in the address, if he has asked us to do it, he will provide.
The proper place for us to do it until He comes.
Brethren, I just have to say for my own self that I find.
Sitting down at the Lord's table to remember him.
Necessary for my own soul.
There's where you get the proper picture of.
Who we are as men in the flesh.
There's where you get the proper.
Picture of who our God is.
01:15:04
There is where you get the proper picture.
Of how serious sin is.
You look at the Savior hanging on the cross.
In.
Those hours of darkness under the hand of God.
Suffering intense agony, you see, as in no other place, the truth that God is light and God is love. We need to have that renewed in us. We tend to forget. We're forgetful people. And when we get back there, we need to be exercised. Don't just come to sit down.
And occupy a seat.
Can I go to sleep? Get drowsy?
He exercised in the presence of the Lord. It's a remembrance feast. We remember him in his death. Oh, how important, how healthy it is to do that each time until he comes again. I remember meeting a brother of some other denomination or group in Peru one time.
Who? When we were talking about doing it each time until he comes, he got rather agitated at us and said, I don't see any place in the Bible where it says you have to do it every Sunday.
So I said to him, I don't see any place either.
But I said, if it were the Lord Jesus, and with those hands that were pierced for you, and he said to you, do this as often as you do it in remembrance of me, are you going to say to the Lord, it's too much to do it every Sunday?
Well, I think, brethren, it shows that it's important that it be the response of love, and if there is nothing else, it should be this that stirs our hearts again in love towards Him. And that's the fountain of Christian living is our hearts, brethren. And the Lord help us to keep those focuses right.
Middle teens.
Grandpa Fisher.
Ask in the Sunday school class.
When you get to heaven and if you haven't remembered the Lord.
What are you going to say to him when he says, I ask you this do in remembrance of Maine? That struck me.
There's one more thought, perhaps. Sorry, were you finished, Brother Ed?
There's one more thought perhaps that we might suggest with regard to the apostles having received it of the Lord, and it's not new, but we know that the Apostle Paul, excuse me.
Never saw the Lord on earth. As we have remarked. He saw a risen Christ in glory, and what he received was from a risen Christ in glory.
That precious truth of the Church that gives us the revelation of the Churches peculiar place, how blessed it is. But He got that directly, not from the Lord on earth, but from a risen Christ in glory. And this is connected with it. Till He come brings about the thought, as we have already expressed, that it will be done and should be done until He comes. But then He also says.
Ye show the Lord's death, or we could read it as I think it's in the Darby. He announced the death of the Lord. Whom is that too? We've spoken about the meeting as being for the Lord, and that is so important. It is one meeting at which we come, to which we come to give, not to receive. Very important. Every other meeting, practically we come looking to receive, and rightfully so, but that is a meeting when we come to give.
We've mentioned the need for it for ourselves, as Brother Bob was saying, Very, very true. And we do need it and we are blessed by coming there if we come in the right way.
But then what else do we do? We announce the death of the Lord. To whom is that? That is to the world around. The fact that you and I come together to break bread is a witness of the Lord's resurrection. You never heard, and I speak not to try and be critical, but you never heard of a Muslim remembering Muhammad in death, did you? He is dead. You can go to Mecca and see his tomb. He is dead.
01:20:20
You couldn't remember, we say with all reverence, the Lord in death if he were still dead. We remember him in death because he is now alive. And the fact that we come together to break bread is an announcement to this world that the one who once hung on Calvary's cross, the one who once was in that tomb, is now risen and glorified. And that is an announcement. Whether the world receives it or not, that's another matter.
And I suggest that's another reason why Paul received it of the Lord, because there was that dimension added to his ministry that the other apostles in that sense did not have in the same way, because he was given that precious truth from a risen Christ in glory.
Say, when brethren break bread in a certain place, there is a testimony there. Isn't it because we show something? We show.
The Lord's death, I'd like to say before we close too, because it's important, brethren, the verses that follow.
Is something we need to think about as well, about eating or drinking unworthily. It's not the question that we are worthy in our persons. That's not the question. We've already talked about that, but it's the way or the manner in which we eat. If I was invited to have supper with the President of the United States.
And sit down at the table in a state dinner and start to use my fingers to eat food that would be an unworthy manner of eating at his table if I come to the Lord's table. And during the week I've been careless in my ways.
Have not exercised self judgment and come sloppily.
To his table without judging myself, and sing the hymns, thanking him for dying for me on the cross, for my sins.
That's an unworthy manner and if we do that, there's going to be consequences and the Lord deals with us. Yesterday we heard about His discipline amongst His people. He loves us, therefore He disciplines us and He's not going to let it go. And I have to say I've been the subject of His discipline at times.
And I need to be careful. I need to judge myself. Who is this? Whose table is this that I'm approaching tomorrow morning? It's the Lord's table. It's the one that paid the ultimate price to pay for my sins. Am I going to come carelessly and sit down at His table? It's a time that I need to judge myself. Notice how it reads here in verse.
28.
Let a man examine himself. This is in connection with the supper.
And so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Doesn't say let him examine himself and and sit back. No, you judge yourself and you eat and you drink of that cup. It's a time when we're brought to grips with things. We can't do it in a light manner. It's too serious a manner, brother.
One of you comes with your own supper and and you're hungry and even drunken and that's not in a worthy weight at all. You can't discern the Lords body and blood and so on. That's terrible. That's what they did.
I'm very glad that that we're not commanded to either take part in the Lord's Supper.
But my conscience demands it. That's where affection.
The heart comes into play. Is that my my conscience says.
The Lord said this too. I love Him, I trust what He says is for my good and blessing and for His own honor and glory. Therefore, it's a it's I I have to do it in order to satisfy my conscience.
01:25:18
11.
Three.
Gospel 2
Gospel—Bill Brockmeier
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Life at best is very brief, like the falling.
You'll soon give the Lord, and you must be online.
Oh my God.
You don't make all you know again and your pride is just to play.
Spray Fern if you would please first to the Book of Job chapter 16.
00:05:07
Job 16. Just the last verse of the chapter, verse 22.
When a few years are come.
Then I shall go the way, whence I shall not return.
Psalm 39.
Psalm 39.
And verse 5.
Behold, thou hast made my days as in hand, breadth in mine age or my lifetime.
Is as nothing before thee. Verily every man at his best state.
Is altogether vanity. Selah.
Or, as we had this afternoon, pause and consider. Think about it.
Surely every man walketh in a vain show. Surely they are disquieted. In vain he heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them. Drop down to verse 11.
When thou with rebukes does correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth. Surely every man is vanity. Silo one verse more in the 89th Psalm.
Psalm 89 and verse 47.
Remember how short my time is. Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?
Cela.
I have it particularly before me tonight to seek for the Lord's help to impress upon us the vanity and the brevity of life and the certainty and the solemnity and the finality of death. In the words of James, we read What is your Life? And I would pose that as a question to you tonight, What is your life?
Could say for me to live is Christ, that was his life. What is your life? What is your life? James says It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away a little **** of smoke and gone from time into eternity. Here today, gone tomorrow, and gone forever.
We only have a few moments here on Earth and how important it is that it is settled definitively in everyone of our hearts and souls that we know.
Where we are going to spend eternity, it is either with Christ.
Which in the language of the apostle is far better, or it is without him?
It is in that place where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Jude would describe it as the blackness of darkness, forever without Christ, forever. Friend, on which course are you headed tonight? To the realms that lead to glory? Or are you on that broad Rd. that leads to everlasting destruction? I'm especially burdened tonight, as I think as we've had before us.
Of those that have been raised under the sound of the truth of God, that you could perhaps give the gospel just as well as I.
But it's never been made real in your own soul, and we're thankful if there's any here. That is the first time for you to hear the blessed story of Jesus and his love. How that Jesus, God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, came into this world to save sinners. He came to save you and to bless you. And in order to do that, He must go to the cross for his Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I cannot say it any more simply and sweetly than that that God loves you. Christ died for you, He suffered upon the cross, and he shed his blood.
Have you thanked him for the gift he offers? A salvation? The one who suffered the justice for the unjust? He died for you. Will you have him?
Will you have him tonight?
00:10:02
Well, sometimes our familiarity makes us.
Callous to the gospel, we hear the expression familiarity breeds contempt. Oh, I trust there's no one here that is so familiar with the Word of God it doesn't have the impact and penetration in your soul that it should.
Allow me to share a very solemn instance. When the boys were young would sometimes go out of town on business, and I worked with a man that was nearing retirement age and his wife. We met her one time, a very pleasant woman as he was a very kind man, but she was afflicted with cancer and she was dying. And I knew the last trip that we would go to this area would be the last time I would have an opportunity to see her, and as it was, she was too sick.
But I sat across the lunch table from this man. His name was Bill, and I saw it the best I could to try to bring before him the truth of the gospel.
The time was drawing now for her to leave this world, and there was number assurance that she knew the Savior. And so I.
Gave a few scriptures. I tried to make some progress and there was a point when he looked at me and I knew I could say no more.
I could say no more.
I said, Bill, if you would, here's a little gospel paper I'd like to leave with you. It's called The Two Alexanders, two men by the same name, one that came to know Christ at the end of his life, and one who passed into a crisis eternity. He took it. He wasn't happy with me.
Just a few weeks later, his wife died in her ashes were scattered over the deserts of the desert in Nevada.
Few weeks later he was down, this was in Nevada, he was down in Southern California and for a sales meeting and we were happened to be going up the elevator together and admittedly it was a bit strained and as we went up the elevator together.
He looked at me and said Bill.
Are you Mennonite?
I said no, Bill.
He became very serious and looked me right in the eye and said, Bill, are you brethren?
He said. I know more than you think I know.
How is it with you, friend, tonight? Could you say that to me? I know more than you think I know, but what have you done with it? Here is a man that knew the gospel. Here is a man that was familiar with perhaps how even we assemble, and yet enmity and hostility towards Christ and His Word. Oh, I fear, my friend, that we live in such a day of superficial profession that the Word of God has not penetrated it and buried itself within our souls where it needs to be.
Turn, if you would, to the 4th chapter of Mark.
I just like to note a couple verses here.
In verse three, we know it's a sower. Beholder went on a sower to sow.
Now drop down to verse five. And some fell on Stony ground where it had not much earth.
And immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth, but when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away.
Dropped down to verse 16. And these are they likewise, which are sown on Stony ground, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness.
And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time.
Afterward, when affliction or persecution arises, for the words sake immediately.
They are offended.
This parable, there was the seed that the sower sowed in four different types of ground. I simply want to notice tonight this seed that was, that fell on the Stony ground, and immediately there was a response that sprang up.
But you know, time is the great tester and time is the great manifester. And so the time came whether there was this immediate response.
As the Lord explains, they receive the Word with gladness, but it didn't endure.
There may be an initial positive surge as the Word of God is preached. Maybe there's something that responds in your heart to it.
But what's the effect here? We find that something comes up and the sea, the plant, Withers away. And why? Why did it do that? It's because there was no depth of Earth. There was no root.
00:15:09
We live in a day of casual discipleship, of superficial profession.
It doesn't get beneath the service. We speak of lip service, but oh, God would want to reach into your soul tonight, as David could say. They're in that Psalm 51 where he owns his sin and says, Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hen part, the hidden part. Thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Well, we find that there's those and they're offended. All you say I've been offended. Yes, and Scripture says in many things we all often offend. That means you and it certainly means me.
We're not who are told not to offend, neither the Jew, the Gentile or the Church of God. And sometimes because of our on Christ like ways, even believers we give offense.
But the Lord Jesus could ask the question to his own Does this? Does this saying offend you?
Was there something wrong in the way the Lord presented something? No, it was the truth of God.
That would rub man crosswise. That would go and cut against the grain.
And now I ask you this, if you have been offended, perhaps you point to some and say they have offended me. I asked you in the context of this chapter, why have you been offended?
What does the scripture say? It says because there was number depth of earth, there was number root.
There was number route and God's going to test everything, even that profession that you make so superficially, Oh, God wants.
There to be the response of your heart that is not simply a drawing nigh to the Lord with our mouth and our heart being far from Him, but there's a response of love to that blessed One who came to die. And could God have given any more than his own Son?
Well, wondrous words the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, as we sometimes sing His Son.
His delight, his loved one, he gave. Oh, that's the heart of God in giving the very best of heaven.
His own son, a man, said to me one time in conversation.
Said, Well, if God is a God of love, why is this world in the condition that it is?
It's very simple, friend. It's because of sin.
Any question the love of God because of the turmoil, the heartache, the tragedy in this world, I said, oh, how can you dare say that when God gave his very Son to die for you? I wouldn't do that, nor would any of us here. But God gave his Son to die and man has the defiance to stand to God in question and challenge his love.
Well, we desire to see something that which is of depth.
But before.
We move on. I'd like to turn back to Leviticus chapter 13 because there is an issue that does need to be addressed.
And just a few weeks ago or less than that, I was reading this chapter. It has to do with what we speak of is the law of the leper when one was determined whether they did or did not have leprosy and what the process for the cleansing of the leper would be.
But I'd like to read just 4 verses here in this chapter. The 1St is in verse 3.
And the priest shall look on the plague and the skin of the flesh, and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague insight be deeper than the skin of his flesh.
It is a plague of leprosy, and the priest shall look on him and pronounce him unclean. Notice that expression. The plague insight be deeper than the skin of his flesh.
Go over now to verse 20.
And if when the priest seeth it, behold it be insight lower than the skin and the hair, there I'll be turned white. The priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a plague of leprosy broken out of the boil.
Drop down to verse 25.
Here we have the hot burning. Then the priest shall look upon it, and behold, if the hair in the bright spot be turned white, and it be insight deeper than the skin, it is a leprosy broken out of the burning, wherefore the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is the plague of leprosy. One verse more, verse 30. Then the priest shall see the plague, and behold, if it be insight deeper than the skin, and there be in it a yellow thin hair, than the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a dry skull, even a leprosy.
00:20:06
Upon the head or the beard, you say, Why do you read those scriptures? I read those scriptures for that expression.
Deeper than the skin.
Because in each of those passages, the one that had a plague that was deeper than the skin, they were pronounced unclean.
They were a leper.
And we do want to.
State what scripture says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is no man that doeth good and sinneth not. It isn't simply friend, that you and I have made a misstep somewhere along the line, but we have sinned before God and we have an issue that is deeper than the skin.
We're fallen creatures, we're lost, and we're on the way to hell.
No man as a substitute in order to patch up that old sinful flesh. And it's called religion. Turn if you went to Matthew 23.
Matthew 23. We find in this chapter the Lord pronouncing woes against the religious leaders of his day because of the hypocrisy.
But in verse 25 he says, Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, for ye may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, for ye are like unto. Why did sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness?
Even so, ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within.
You're full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Yes, there is a problem and it's deeper than the skin.
And even though there might be that outward dressing up as there was with the Pharisees and all the religions and their prayers, their fastings, their giving.
The Lord looks not as man looks, for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh upon the heart, and he sees man's guilty, sinful heart.
Now.
Thank God that the blood of Jesus Christ his Son.
Cleanse of us from all sin. That is the answer. It is not a profession of Christianity.
It's not something we can drum up on our own and say, well this will. God will have to be satisfied with this because after all, it's the best that I can provide. Friend, God is not looking for you to provide anything but to accept the provision of grace that He has made in the gift of His Son the Lord Jesus and the bloody shed to cleanse your us from all sin.
Now how is it in your heart?
Everything hinges on this one question. What think ye of Christ?
You'll love him. If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.
Maranatha, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. The Lord cometh. Do you love him?
All the most serious thing to me is to ask someone, do you love Christ? Do you love the Savior? If there is any hesitancy on that point, friend, you're lost.
The very breathing of divine life as you love the Savior, you love the Son of God, as the apostle Paul could say, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. If you're wrong on everything else, be right on this point that you know Christ, that you love him, and you thank God for sending him to die for you.
Well, in the time that is left to us, I'd like to turn to the book of Acts, and I would like to look at some highly favored men.
That had the privilege of being in the presence of the apostle Paul, the.
Perhaps the greatest evangelist, although he's not spoken of as evangelist in Scripture, he certainly was who suffered much in order to get the gospel out, and each of these men had.
Access and contact with him, but oh how different.
The response to their hearts, to that message that they heard.
Turn to the 13th chapter.
You know we read in the 39th Psalm that.
That every man man at his best state is altogether vanity that might be translated every man, even the high placed.
00:25:06
Is vanity men of rank, men of position, men of title, greatness in this world? That's those I would like to look at tonight. Scripture says unto the poor of the gospel is preached, and we're so thankful it is.
One of my earliest memories was driving South of the border with my grandpa and grandma and grandpa drive and get these little red cellophane wrappers with.
Men sahez de l'amour de dios anid honk and I fire him out the window, and people would come all down the highway to pick up these little gospel papers.
There was response to the word of God. The poor opened to the gospel one time, filling up one night and gas, and there was the bulletproof glass and I slid my card or money, whatever it was, under the glass. It was a little gospel paper. Young man shoved it back at me. I was young myself at the time, and I said no, why did you do that? He says. I was raised to this stuff and I don't appreciate it being shoved down my throat.
And I said I wasn't shoving it down your throat, I was sliding it under the glass.
But he refused it, and he turned to a false religion, and there was enmity there. Oh, a solemn to turn away from the truth of God and become an enemy of the truth.
Oh, the grace of God that would reach out to the poor, that would receive the gospel. But now we're going to look at some of the responses of those men that are high placed. Acts 13.
And verse 6 and when they that would be Barnabas and Paul.
Had gone through the aisle into pathos. They found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet of Jews, named as Bar Jesus.
Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man, who called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word of God.
But elements the sorcerer, for so is his name by interpretation withstood them seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.
Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said, O full of all subtly and all mischief, thou child of the devil.
Thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season.
And immediately there fell on him amidst in the darkness, and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. Sergius Paulus, a man of position, the only man that will read of that it says that he believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. He believed, but there was conflict in order for him to do what we find that there was one.
Slick fellow elements, the sorcerer who perverted the ways of righteousness, who sought to turn him away from hearing the words of truth. That's the great work of the enemy of your soul. And he often works through men in order to turn them away from hearing the word of truth. One time we had some downtime at the office. This goes back a number of years.
And the thing that matters turned over to the things of the Lord. And there was a young woman there that expressed her concern about the way the world was going and.
How is it all going to end up? I said. You know, this world is just dancing on the brink.
Of the Cliff ready for judgment, she says I know that's true. She said no that's true and that's why I'm concerned when my boss came in at the time he says he said he says this world's not getting better and he went rattled off a few things why the why the world and his way of thinking was improving.
And this woman said I like that better.
I like that better.
What would you think of someone that instead of stating?
The truth is to a serious medical condition that you had just told you what you wanted to hear to make you feel good.
You'd say.
The man The man is an evil man.
To not tell somebody the truth, well, God has told us the truth, he said. The soul that sinneth it shall die.
He's told us that God is appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness. And who is He going to judge it by? By that man whom He hath ordained, whereas He hath given assurance unto all men, and that He hath raised him from the dead. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who He raised from the dead is the one that will execute judgment. He is the Son of man, and all judgment has been committed to the Son of man. Well, how sad that was. She heard the truth, she acknowledged this truth, but she heard something better.
00:30:15
And so we find this elements the sorcerer he put something out he tried in his own way to turn her turn Sergius Paulus away from hearing the word of God. But we find that Saul stands forth in faithfulness and this man goes about groping about finding some that would lead him by the the hand he was in darkness or to reject this book will end you up in darkness. If the light that be in the be darkness. How great is the darkness.
The Word of God is life.
If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
The Word of God, light for our souls.
Will Sergius Paula saw this solemnize that what had occurred before him, and he believed.
Have you believed God tonight?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And thou shalt be saved. To believe on Him is the object of faith. Cast everything upon him.
Turn over now to the 18th chapter. So we find with Sergius Paulus. There was earnestness with him.
And he got the blessing.
Now Acts 18.
Read from verse 11 and he that as Paul continued there.
That is, in Corinth, the year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. And when Galileo is the deputy of Akiah, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat, saying, This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. When Paul was now about to open his mouth, Galileo said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or of wicked lewdness, so you Jews, reason, would that I should bear with you, but if it be a question of words and names, and of your law.
Looky to it.
For I will be no judge of such matters. And he drove them from the judgment seat.
Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Galileo cared for none of those things, or Gallio troubled himself about none of those things.
If we have earnestness with Sergius Paulus, we have indifference with this man named Galio.
All this is one of the greatest burdens on our hearts.
Is when we see those, it isn't even necessarily that they're vehemently opposed to the Word of God, but they're just simply indifferent.
There were those in the Lord's Day.
We've mourned on you and you've not wept. We've piped into you and you've not danced. You've heard of the joys of heaven, of the preciousness of the Savior that came to die different.
You've heard of the horrors of hell and of the lost eternity without Christ, forever the blackness of darkness forever whatever indifference to the things of God. Galileo troubled himself about none of these things, he says. This is simply if it's an issue of words and names and if your law take care of it. I'm a political man that's not in my sphere of jurisdiction. I've got no time for such things. I was outside one of the college classroom.
Right next door.
Psychology professor came out to talk to a man I knew as a Christian. He was a bit of a confrontational fellow, but be that as it may, he was explaining to the psychology professor why he was, he had missed class that day and he was going on. I was down having a religious theological discussion down down in the quad area where that, you know, it was a general gathering area.
I still remember the look at the psychology professor's face. There's long, small glasses and beady eyes, he said. You know how important I think those type of discussions are.
What a waste of time. What a waste of time that was with Galileo.
It's words, names, your law. Why are you getting so caught up in this, so tangled up in this thing?
Well, when Sostenes got beaten, so be it. Galileo cared for none of these things. Is that how it is with your heart tonight? Is this is just, this is just a nuisance to you?
The things of God, something to be endured. Well, Galileo didn't get the blessing. Oh, I trust, friend. There's none.
00:35:04
That are indifferent as this man turn over to the 23rd chapter.
Go back to chapter 22.
There's umm.
The chief captain is letting Paul speak. He's accused of the Jews and he's making his defense and there's quite a quite an upheaval as he brings out the truth and verse 2223. But let's pick up the story from Acts 2224. The chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle and bad that he should be examined by scourging.
That he might know wherefore they cried so against him, and they bound him with thongs. Paul said, into the sentry, and they stood by. Is a lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned on the sanctuary? And heard that he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest, for this man is a Roman. Then the chief captain came and said to him, Tell me, art thou Roman? He said, Yeah. And the chief captain answered with a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was freeborn. Then straightway they examined.
They departed from him that which should have been exempt, which should have examined him. And the chief captain also was afraid after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.
On the Morrow, because he would have known the certainty wherefore he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him from his bands in command of the chief priests and all their counsel to appear, and brought Paul down and set him before them.
We'll find that again. Paul's life is spared. There's a conspiracy to slay him. God, in his providential ways, preserves him. This chief captain, by name of Claudius Licious arranges to get him out of town at night, and with him he sends a letter to Felix.
In verse 26, Claudius Lysias under the most excellent governor Felix Sendeth greeting this man was taken to the Jews, and should have been killed of them. Then came I with an army and rescued him, having understood that he was a Roman, and when I would have known the cause were for they accused him, I brought him forth into their counsel, whom I perceived to be accused of questions of the law, but to have nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or bonds. And then one has told me how that the Jews laid wait for this man, I sent straightway to thee, and gave commandment to his accusers also to say before thee.
What they had against him. Farewell.
Well, the 24th chapter Paul shows up there. Well Claudius Licious, what is my point in referencing him? Perhaps you notice, I don't know if I read enough for you to to capture all the thoughts here, but perhaps in the few verses I read you will find that the way Claudius provides a synopsis of what happened with Paul was not exactly how it happened. We find that he bound Paul when he is ready to scourge him, and it was only by the fact that Paul let it be known that he was a Roman that he was stopped.
But when you read Claudius Lysias portrayal of it doesn't come out that way.
Nothing is said about him binding him. No, that's all glossed over. That's all covered over.
But you know, in the things of God there are things that will not be and cannot be glossed over.
Because all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
And it doesn't say there in that scripture all things are naked and open unto the eyes of God.
That's true enough.
But is positioned there, naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do, because we have to do with God.
And there is a day coming when God will judge the secrets of man by Jesus Christ.
And he has an accurate understanding and record of justice, how things occurred.
And so we see with this man, Claudius Licious, he didn't get in the position that he was in because he was devoid of talent and ability. He no doubt had scrummed himself out of many tight spots before. You know, we live in a day of fast talkers and spin doctors.
And it can influence the Saints of God. My brother here and I were visiting some months ago and he says, what do you think the greatest issue on the young people is today?
00:40:05
I hadn't given it a great deal of thought, and rightly or wrongly, I said this Truthfulness. Truthfulness.
You don't have the truth if you're not truthful.
All we live in a day of poor character, a lack of integrity and honesty. But God sees all He knows the heart.
Claudius Licious wasn't going to skip out of town. He got himself off the hook. But there's a day coming when the books will be opened, and the one that sits on the throne is the Son of Man. The Lord Jesus and the dead are judged out of those things that are written in the books. There will be no defense attorneys in that day. No, because the Lord himself.
The all knowing, all seeing God has a complete record.
As we read the 139th Psalm, it not only says that he knows your thoughts, but he understands them.
Oh, how good and how thoroughly God knows is sometimes we don't understand why we did what we did, why we thought what we thought, but he does.
But he does, and so all we would warn 1 going on with a false pretense.
Craftiness, schemers, Clever, knowing it. Get yourself out of an awkward position. No, friend, you won't get the blessing that way. There is a day of accounting ahead.
Turn over now to the.
20.
4th chapter Claudius Licia sends.
Paul to Felix.
And we'll read in verse 24.
And after certain days, when the Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.
And is the reason of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come? Felix trembled.
And answered, Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee. He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might lose him. Wherefore he sent for him the offener and communed with him. But after two years Porsche Asbestos came into Felix room in Felix willing to show the Jews a pleasure left Paul bound. Now we come to Felix. So we see a man in Sergius Paulus that was earnest and he believed.
And he got the blessing. We see a man, Galileo, that was indifferent, that couldn't be bothered.
With the things of God we find a man, Claudius Licious, that played fast and loose with truth and truthfulness.
Heating at the blessing and now we find Felix man who said he was born a slave, born in the worst place, had the worst occupation and the worst time in history and.
Who really remarkable scenes of circumstances he found himself as in a place of leadership and that's one reason the Proverbs 30 tells us that one reason why there's full of disquietness in the in the in the world is a servant or a fool when he reigneth. We see this with Felix.
He was a man, an abusive man, a profligate man. He comes with his wife Drusilla, who was renowned for her beauty.
And Paul speaks to him in all sobriety. Notice he reasons of righteousness.
Righteousness. Felix was an unrighteous man.
He reasoned him of temperance. He was an intemperate man. He was given to excess. You know we live in a day of excess.
You know, a living day of extreme sports and extreme flavors. Everything is taken to the extreme.
Excess.
And judgment to come. This is what Paul he boiled down his message to three things to Felix.
Righteousness, temperance, and judgment. And Felix trembles. Oh, there wasn't any attitude with him as there was with.
Galileo cared not for these things. Perhaps there's a little bit more progress with you.
In that the things of God have troubled you and maybe have given you a sleepless night.
Well, they did with Felix, but you know, he held out. He was a procrastinator. A more convenient season. The time isn't right. And maybe that's your position tonight. The time is not right. You intend to come to Christ, but not now. But not now.
00:45:12
There is a brother of a man.
Brother and Fellowship and Hemet and there was a little get together for he and his wife's 50th anniversary.
And his brother came. His brother was not saved, and he had it on his heart.
His brother wouldn't come to a gospel meeting, he told a brother and him at assembly, he said.
Would you please speak to my brother? Up in years? And he went out of the parking lot and he brought the gospel before him.
And he said you must believe. And he said I can't. I can't. Well, perhaps the correct interpretation would have been I won't. But he said I can't. Do not trifle with the things of God.
If there is a trembling in your soul as to where you're going to spend eternity, do not squelch it, suppress it, put it off and say, we'll deal with that later. As the hymn writer says, tomorrow's son may never rise to rest thy long deluded sight. This is the time. Will then be wise. Thou wouldst be safe. Why not tonight? Scripture says, Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. The rich man in Luke 12 Said, I have much goods laid up for many years.
And I will say to my soul.
But God said fool.
Never mind many years, never mind as Job could see, a few years. This night thy soul shall be required of thee. And if you exit time into eternity, if God calls you tonight, where will you spend eternity? The reason he procrastinated Felix was because he was a covetous man.
The love of money is root of all evil. The love of money damn this man's soul.
What is it that's keeping you from Christ tonight?
Will we find that Festus replaces Felix and.
Again, Paul is desiring deliverance from the situation that he's in.
We don't have time to get into all that detail, but let's.
Drop down to the end of the 25th chapter when.
With Festus, another man comes into the picture.
And on the Morrow, when Agrippa, King Agrippa, he was one of the Herods, was common Bernice with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing with the chief captains and principal men of the city. At Festus Commandment Paul was brought forth.
Now, as we go into chapter 26, Agrippa says to Paul, the art permitted to speak for thyself.
And verse 19 Paul says, Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient under the heavenly vision.
That He was called, and he was to take the blessing, the gospel out to the Gentiles. Verse 23. And what is that gospel? That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, or from among the dead, and should show light under the people and to the Gentiles.
All this is really breaking away. The book of Acts is a breaking away from the Jews out to the Gentiles. And how thankful we are. The blessing of the gospel has reached us for dogs of the Gentiles. The gospel has come out to us that Christ died for our sins. He was buried the third day rose again. Always the work of God to deliver us from the power of darkness and to translate us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love. Oh, you know, there's authority in the Kingdom which we're in, but it's the authority of love.
That's where God and His grace has brought us.
You know, Christianity, Christianity, friend, is not a new law, a new chain to bind you. No, it's the law of love. It's the perfect law of liberty. God would give you a life that loves him, that loves his word, that loves his people.
That's Christianity. Oh, it's a delight to do what this new life has given that he delights us to do. But first, friend, you must come and be saved. Well, as Paul is bringing this out in the Gospel, verse 24, and as he thus spake for himself, best to said to the loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee mad. But he said, I am not mad. Most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth.
00:50:01
For the king north of these things, before whom also I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him. For this thing was not done in a corner. The facts of the gospel are well known and laid out. Agrippa knew them. But what I want to notice before I look at Agrippa is to notice the response of Festus. He said, you're beside yourself, Paul. Much learning does make you mad.
You're a lunatic. You've lost your mind. You can't think clearly.
Sarcasm.
Mockery.
I'd like to tell you about Joe Kennedy and Larry Doyle, not the Joe Kennedy you might be thinking of. When I was probably in junior high, my brother was in high school, and there was a boy that went to school with him. He was, Larry was a Christian my brother had met on campus and he was in the educationally handicapped class, and he had some nervous habits. He'd run his hand and rattle his fingers over the back of couches and lampshades and pianos and all the rest, and it was very irritating.
To me is a 12/13 year old boy, but this man let young man Larry, he loved the Lord and he'd often come to the house for dinner, then go to the reading meeting with us or he'd come up to the house for a reading after the meal.
He really loved the Lord and he had a teacher there at the school, caustic man, sarcastic man, but a kind man towards the students. Well, in the class one day Joe Kennedy made a very derisive comment about the Lord Jesus Christ and Larry, dear Larry, and all of his simplicity, that settled it for him. He refused to speak to his teacher again. He would not acknowledge him. He would speak. He would turn away from him because he'd insulted his Lord.
Don't you value that kind of fidelity to Christ, the simple heart? His Lord had been insulted, and he would have nothing to do with this man. Now the teacher was a bit troubled about it. He'd spoken out of line. He didn't know what to do. How do I get back on Larry's good side? And so he saw Larry in line one time at the snack counter. He stepped up and said, I'd like to buy you a doughnut, Larry. And he gave Larry this doughnut.
Larry accepted it, turned around. He had huge, long legs, big, two big steps, said. Thank you, Mr. Kennedy.
And then he said, I would like to invite you to the gospel meeting next Sunday night.
Well, this is not exactly what Mr. Kennedy had in mind, but he realized that he wanted to seal the deal. If I can put it that way, said I will come.
And that night there was a brother that was visiting in Buena Park, his name was Philip Gladdy.
And brother gliding priests with Joe Kennedy right down there about 3 rows away. And I don't know all that Philip Gladden preached that night, but I know one thing he preached. He preached the judgment of God.
And although I was saved, I trembled. And Joe Kennedy was there to hear it all. And the story of the love of God.
Well, the gospel meeting ended and.
Things went back more or less as normal there was.
Polite but.
No politeness, but no response. Well, my mother worked at the school now and then to help out, and one day she was there and over the lunch hours reading a little something and Joe Kennedy came by and says, what book is that that you're reading?
He was a mocker.
A few months later, he was dead, taken by a sudden heart attack.
What a solemn thing.
To sit under the gospel, meeting the gospel as our brother gliding could preach it, and all faithfulness and solemnity, but he made mockery of it. He's in a lost eternity tonight. Festus could say much learning that make me mad. No, Paul says, I speak the words of truth and soberness will finally agrippa.
These things weren't a mystery to him. He knew the gospel.
He knew the facts then, Agrippa said in Nepal, verse 28 almost.
Thou persuadeth me to be a Christian, and Paul said I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day.
We're both almost an altogether such as I am, except these bonds.
I take it when Agrippa says this almost thou persuadeth me to be a Christian.
00:55:04
It could have been with a smile, if not a smirk on his face. He almost got me there, Paul. I'm right there. Not quite, though. I don't believe this man's conscience was reached.
Making light of the things of God. Have you ever done that? Made light of the things of God? But now I would like to use that expression not only now as a just to sort of take the pressure off for the moment.
But it may be that God is speaking to your soul tonight.
And you're in earnest.
Almost. You're almost there.
You know, Paul says. Not only almost, but all together altogether.
Him, He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast doubt. The question is, have you come? You say I'm almost there, I'm almost there, but have you come to the Savior?
Let's sing number one in closing.
Almost.
What Is Sin?
Children—Caleb Buchanan
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
And.
Look over it, find some songs that you want to sing. This is a children's meeting, so the children's songs are on the Backpage.
And.
If you don't have one, you just have to share with someone next to you here.
Who has a song to start out with? Which song did you want?
Which one?
46 OK #46 Glad tidings. Good. That's what we're going to talk about this morning is glad tidings. Good news, but let's sing #46 Glad TI.
That's a matter just come to USA me.
And because.
I have to.
Be in Him and have all their sins now washed away.
Good, good. We've got so many kids up here. We don't have quite enough chairs for everyone. But if more want to come up front, I'm sure we can find another chair. I see some of you sharing chairs. That's nice. OK, who else has a song?
17 #17.
Have you any room for Jesus? It's a question.
Let's sing #17 have.
Room for pleasure, room for business.
But for Christ the crucified.
Not always that we can enter.
In my heart for gratitude life.
During while you may have you any time for you.
Because I'm crazy from the killer.
Hope you take his time and standard.
Tomorrow you may call it baby.
Lord 40 + 4 of glory.
Haze, that is, not really.
00:05:09
The last verse was talking about time.
How much time do we have left?
We don't know, do we?
Might, might not be very much and I think that that's the case. I don't think we have very much time, you know.
If one of you boys and girls or somebody may be farther back listening in, knows that they need to accept the Lord Jesus as their Savior, but maybe they haven't done it yet. Now is the time to do it because we don't know how much time we have left. Or maybe you've accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior and you're thinking, well, someday I'm going to start living like a Christian. I'm not really living like a Christian now, but someday I'm going to start living like I should.
How much time do we have left to live for the Lord Jesus?
We need to make those decisions now when we have time. OK, how about another song? Go ahead.
40 #40 I'm glad you gave this one. Now this is a good song. Jesus loves me, I think everyone.
Even some of the little ones know this song, so let's sing it. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me, this I know.
Lost me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, because I slaughtered me.
Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me go my back and he waits to make me laugh. Ways to pull me in his arms is safe from every heart.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, because I slush me.
Yes, please stop swatting sleep, but I will tell you what tells me so.
Jesus loves me, loves me still when I marry me, Gandalf.
Promised shining with my heart comes to watch me where I lie.
Yes, Jesus won't speak. Yes, I see, I slice me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Jesus loves me. He will stand close beside me all the way.
If I trust him, should I die, he will Take Me Home. My heart.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus likes me.
Yes, she's a slump straight the Bible.
Tells me so.
OK, we're going to bow our heads and look to the Lord right now, OK?
Our God and our loving Father we give. OK, that was kind of an easy verse to learn, wasn't it? Only 6 words right now. I want to talk about that verse a little bit this morning though, and maybe we can go through it kind of slowly and talk about some of the words. The sting of death is sin. It's easy to learn, but sometimes, you know, we learn the words, but we're maybe not quite sure what they mean, how, why God says it the way he does.
00:10:04
So let's go through the verse and let's talk about some of those words. Let's go from the end of the verse back to the beginning and let's talk about that last word.
Sin. First of all, who can tell me what sin is?
What do you think sin is? You have your hand up in the air. What do you think sin is?
It's something that.
Is bad and you can't do. You're exactly right. It's something that's bad, something that we're not supposed to do. Is that what you were going to say? Something like that? OK, good. Then it was something bad. I think we know that, right?
Who decides what is good and what is bad?
If something bad is sin, who decides?
It's the answer.
Our parents, yes, that's very good. That was one of the answers I was thinking of.
Our parents say maybe they say I want you to sit down and finish your homework and not get up until your homework is done or something like that. And then we're supposed to do that. If we don't do that, we are sinning, right? It's something bad.
But who tells us to obey our parents?
Why do we have to obey our parents?
Have you ever thought about that before? Why do we have to obey our parents, Susanna?
The Lord tells us to. That's exactly right. So the Lord Jesus, God in his word, is really the one who tells us what is good and what is bad.
You know, there's a lot of people that you might talk to and they say, well, I think that.
Telling a lie. If nobody is hurt by the consequences of the lie, it's not bad. Is that what the Lord Jesus says?
No, He tells us not to lie. He tells us to be truthful.
And so somebody else might say, well, I don't think that that that's so bad. Maybe I maybe there's some other sin that they say, well, it's OK to do it a little bit, you know. But is that what God says? No, God is the one that tells us what is right and what is wrong. I'm going to ask you some questions. I think we know some things that are wrong, like telling lies. We know that telling a lie is wrong, right?
OK, I'm just making sure because I told the boy once it's a little bit older than you guys that telling a lie was wrong, was a sin. And you should have seen the look on his face. He was so surprised. He had never heard that lying was wrong. He said lying is a sin.
He looked at me and I thought he was joking, but he wasn't. He was very serious. And so, yeah, we told him that lying was wrong. So we know that lying is wrong, but what about and disobeying our parents? That was one that that we talked about a little bit, disobeying our parents. I'm going to tell you something that happened in our house and you tell me if this is a sin or not.
One of the rules when in our house, the kitchen and the family room are kind of all together. There's no wall in between them, but the floor changes there. In between them is one kind of floor in the kitchen, one different kind of floor in the family room. And one of the rules in our house is when we're eating snacks, we eat them in the kitchen, not in the family room.
Well, not too long ago somebody was eating a snack and they were walking over towards the family room and I saw him and I said you need to eat in the kitchen. And he kind of put his foot down and walked along the line and he said one foot is in the kitchen.
Now is that a sin?
Or not. What do you think?
What do you think? Is that a sin? That is a sin. Maybe he was obeying with one foot, but he was disobeying with the other foot, right?
And God tells us to obey, and he doesn't mean just halfway. He means all the way. So that is a sin. Now I'm going to tell you now that a little story that maybe something like this is kind of happened to you. I heard this story. I won't tell you who it was, but.
This this family, their their their mom teaches them at home and during a certain time of the day they they have a little pillow that they're supposed to sit on and not get off of it for a period of time while they do some school work.
And so one of these children needed to get up and do something, or they thought they needed to. And so they picked up the pillow with them and they held it on their backside and they went to do what they wanted to do.
00:15:12
OK, now you tell me, is that a sin?
Or is that OK? What do you think, Kevin? It's a sin. You're right. Because what did Mommy really mean?
She meant to stay there. And so sometimes we try to get around things a little bit. Now these are kind of funny stories, but you know what, I've talked to some grown-ups that are just as silly in the ways that they try to get around God's laws. And we can kind of laugh and think those are funny stories. But you know, we as grown-ups, we do the same thing and it's just as silly. It's just as funny. Well, it's not funny. It's, it's bad, it's wrong, but it's, we're, we're just as foolish in trying to get around God's laws. So I wanted to give a few examples so we understand really what sin is.
Not just to obey the exact words, but to obey what God means.
When he tells us or when our parents maybe tell us to stay on our pillow or whatever it might be.
OK, so that's sin. I think maybe we got to have an understanding of what is sin. So it says the sting of death is sin. Now somebody talked to me about death. What is death?
What do you think death is? What are you going to say?
When you die.
Yeah, and when you die, what happens?
I went to a funeral just a couple weeks ago of a friend of mine.
And he knew the Lord Jesus.
And at his funeral there in the in the room where the funeral took place, there was a big box up in the front. They call it a casket. And his body was in there and it looked like him the way I remembered him.
But where was my friend? Was he in that box?
No, he wasn't. His body was, but he wasn't there. Where was he? He knew the Lord Jesus as a Savior.
So he was in heaven, right? Is that what you're going to say? You're right, He was in heaven. His body was still here.
And then later on we went to the graveyard and had a burial for him, but his he, my friend, was in heaven. And so that's what death is when the soul, that's who we are on who we really are, the soul and the spirit go to somewhere else. They leave the body and they're separated from the body. So that's what death is. And I think that's the kind of death that this verse is talking about because it's talking about resurrection.
In those, in those verses before and after that. But there's another kind of death that's even more serious than this that I want to just mention here. And the Bible talks about it as the second death.
The second death can you die twice?
Can a person die twice?
God says they can.
God says they can because those who die without the Lord Jesus.
Without the Lord Jesus as their Savior, we'll have to stand before Him someday.
At a place. I don't know if you can call it a place.
Have to stand before a great white throne and beep.
Cast out of the presence of God, body, soul and spirit.
Cast out of the presence of God for all of eternity. Separation from God. You know, the first death is separation of body from the soul and the spirit, but the second death is separation of body, soul, and spirit from God for all of eternity. And that's very solemn. That's the place we call the Lake of fire. And everything that God is is not there in the lake of fire. God is light. God is love.
God is peace. All these things that God is, there is nothing of that.
In the Lake of Fire, it's a horrible place, and so I want it. It's very serious. We need to know the Lord Jesus as our Savior so that we do not.
Have to stand before him at that great white throne and be cast out of his sight. That's the second death. OK, now the sting. The sting of death is sin. Raise your hand if you've ever been stung by a bee or by something. Raise your hand if you've ever been stung. Most of us, almost all of us. Now keep your hand up if you liked it.
00:20:00
Nobody likes getting stung. Why not?
Why not? Why don't you like getting stung?
Because it hurts, right? There's pain.
It hurts. In fact, we use the word sting sometimes. Like maybe you bang yourself and you say, oh, that's dumb.
It hurts. That's what we use the word for. Now that's a little picture of sin, and sin hurts. Sin does hurt. In fact, I think the the word the sting of death. What is the sting of death?
What is it is sin. You're right, the sting of death is sin. So the sting that we're talking about in this verse is sin.
Now, somebody that maybe has studied a little bit of biology and some of their science classes, can you tell me what happens when a bee or when something stings you? What happens?
What's that? Well, the bee dies. You're right. A honey bee. Anyway, Some other bees don't. But what happens to you? Why? Why does it sting?
What do you think?
You're right, it injects poison and different kind of animals, different kinds of bees or Wasps and other Hornets and things they have. Their poisons are a little bit different, but it stings. Is anybody here allergic to bee stings? Maybe you know someone at school?
That is allergic. So I know some of you have allergies and sometimes those allergies can be very severe, but sometimes there are people who are allergic to bees, bee stings and something that maybe would only sting you or me can be very dangerous for that person. It can even cause death if they don't get the right medicine, the right treatment. The poison in the body brings about death sometimes. And I was thinking about that because I think that's maybe a little picture of what the verse is trying to tell us even more than a than a bee sting, which may be.
Her way. I know it hurts, but maybe it doesn't take our life. But the story in the Sunday school paper was about a snake bite, right? Did some of you read that story about a little boy that got bit by a rattlesnake? And that is a lot more dangerous poison, isn't it?
I was thinking about that story and I want to tell you another story about.
Snakes and snake bite. This is a true story and it happened not in this country. It happened in in Ecuador, in South America.
And there was a bus traveling from 1 village to another village in in the jungle there and going through the jungle out out there. And the bus was driving down the road and the bus driver saw a snake on the road that he recognized immediately as a very poisonous snake.
Well, he.
Didn't like that kind of snake and he ran over it with the bus.
Well, he wasn't sure if the bus did the damage. It actually killed the snake yet. So somebody on the bus offered to go out and make sure that the snake really was dead. I don't know if he had. Maybe he had a machete, which is kind of like a long knife, and he was going to finish the snake off.
Because they don't like those snakes. They're very dangerous. Anyway, he got out of the bus and went to make sure that the snake was dead, but it wasn't and he got bit.
Well, immediately the bus driver knew this man needs help. He's been bitten by this very poisonous snake. And the man got back on the bus and the bus driver just drove fast to get him to a clinic in the next town or wherever it was he was going. I don't know where the where the clinic might have been, but he was driving fast to save this man's life. Well, you know what, I wish there was a happy ending, but there's not. The man died from the snake bite before they even got to the next village, before they got to help.
Because he.
Got bit by a snake. The bus driver knew when he was sitting on the bus that this man is dying because he has poison in him and he was trying to save that man's life.
He lived for a while, but he died. You know, each one of us is just like that man.
We had the poison in our flesh.
00:25:00
And we, if we don't get treatment, are dying, are going to die.
And so just like the bus driver, sometimes somebody comes along and tries to save your life. Maybe it's a parent or Sunday school teacher or a gospel preacher, and they try to get your attention so that you pay attention and get serious about this and get the help that you need. Because we are dying because of sin. That's what the sting of death is. The sting that that that brings death is.
Sin Now I didn't hear exactly what kind of snake that was, but I did a little bit of research and I am very confident that it was that it must have been a snake that they call.
The ekis or that's the that's the the letter X in Spanish. So if you said it in English, you would say the the X the Eckies. Now I think we have a different name in English.
We call it a fur de Lance. It's a Viper and it is very poisonous. In fact, it is the most people that die from snake bites and all of the Americas die from snake bites caused by this one snake, and it is one of the most dangerous snakes in the world. I don't know, maybe it is the most dangerous woman, but I'm not going to say that for sure now.
A couple things about this snake that are interesting and I believe that God gives us lessons, gives us pictures in his creation just like he gives us pictures in the word of God. He gives us pictures in creation too to help us understand things like the sting of death is sin. A few things about this snake it is very poisonous and it also.
Can. In fact, the local people down there say it flies. Well, it doesn't really fly, but it can jump a long ways.
And not only that, but it is a very aggressive snake. It doesn't think twice about striking.
Biting. It's a very dangerous, very snake. Kind of like sin. Very dangerous and very deadly. Not something that you would want to play around with, right?
Now the equis.
A few things that I thought just give you. It has an X shape on its back. That's why it gets its its its name. It's kind of.
A a a a pink or a color, bright color. And maybe you would even think it's pretty. I don't know. I don't think very many people think snakes are pretty, but it has an interesting design on the back.
That man that got off the bus, I don't know exactly what happened if if, if the snake jumped and got him or or what happened. I really don't know.
But.
He went into a place that he knew was dangerous. He put himself in danger by getting off that bus and trying to get close to that snake, didn't he?
We you might say that was a foolish thing to do.
But sometimes we.
Do the same thing with sin.
We fool around with it. Maybe we think well.
That snake was run over. It's probably not very strong. It won't get me. And we do the same thing with sin. Well, I know that it's wrong, but I am stronger and I can handle it.
That's foolish, isn't it? Because that snake, I don't know what happened in this story, but that snake can sit there and leap out, and if you're close enough, it can sometimes get you very dangerous. Couple other things that I learned about this snake.
When it lays eggs, the snake, it lays 60 or 70 eggs at once. Can you believe that? That really surprised me.
You know, there's a verse in Galatians that says.
Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. And that verse is warning us that we better be careful. We have to do with God. Don't be deceived. God's not mocked. And if we sow in our life, if we plant.
00:30:09
Bad stuff, sins, things like that. We're going to get back sins. Now when you plant a seed in the ground and it grows up, do you get one seed back?
So you plant a wheat seed in the ground and you watch it grow. Do you get one wheat seed back?
No. How many do you think you might get back?
Sometimes you might get 100, sometimes you might get 60 or 70.
You know, it's like that snake.
When it reproduces, it has a lot of little baby snakes. And you know what about those little baby snakes? As soon as they're born, they have full potency to their poison. So a little baby snake, even if it may be, it's only just a few inches long.
Has the same poison that its mother did.
You know, each of us as children of Adam, as soon as we're born, we have in us a nature that is sin. That's why we need a savior. Even boys and girls, we need a savior. But you know what I said? We were going to talk about good news. Now, this is kind of scary news. But the good news, the glad TIDINGS that we were singing about, the glad tidings.
Is that there is a remedy, there is a way to save our life, to get saved?
You know what that is, don't you?
You know who is the Savior, right?
You know who the Savior is? It's the Lord Jesus, right? You know that? I hope that you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus as your Savior. I believe that many of you probably have, but maybe some of you haven't.
Now I want to read a verse.
In First Corinth or Second Corinthians? Our verse was in First Corinthians, but let's turn to 2nd Corinthians because this is how the Lord Jesus.
Takes away, took away the poison of sin.
Let's read a verse in Second Corinthians chapter 5.
The very last verse of the chapter, I want to read it here, 2 Corinthians 521 it says he, that's God, He hath made him, that's the Lord Jesus. He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
You read that verse, The sting of death is sin.
You know how they make anti venom?
They take the poison from the snake and put it this is the way they used to do it. Maybe they do it.
More chemically now I don't know, but they would take the poison from the snake and inject it, sometimes in small amounts, sometimes in larger and larger amounts in in animals.
And some of the animals would die, but some of them would stay alive and develop in their own body a way to.
To combat the poison and then they would extract that or they would look at it and study it chemically to figure out how to reproduce it. That's how they learned how to make medicine that would take away that would counteract the the poison of snakes. But here's a story about the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus have sinned.
No, he, he never sinned. He could never sin.
To even suggest that he could have sinned is wrong because it would mean that the Lord Jesus was not fully God. Because God cannot sin, and because the Lord Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, he could never have sinned. So the Lord Jesus says in our verse, he knew no sin, He had no sin in him, He could not sin.
He was completely apart from sin, but what happened on the cross?
00:35:03
Let's read the verse again. God hath made him to be sin.
For us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God.
In him, you know what, When the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross.
About 12 noon, about the middle of the day, normally when the sun might be up. Highest sun might be the brightest of the day. What happened?
Got dark, didn't it?
I don't know how God did that, but it says.
There was darkness over all the land and I don't believe that you could see the cross.
Or what was happening on the cross. But God tells us a little bit.
Of what was happening for the next three hours, the sun was dark.
You know, it says about the people who were there that saw that, it says they beat their breasts. They beat their breasts and returned into the city. Now, maybe they didn't completely understand what was happening, but they knew that something awful was happening, something terrible was happening, and they felt that and says they beat their breasts and returned to Jerusalem.
God tells us in his Word that in those three hours.
What he did to the Lord Jesus on the cross is he took my sins, all the things that I've done wrong.
And he put them on the Lord Jesus.
You know what? He took your sins if you've asked the Lord Jesus to be your Savior and put them on the Lord Jesus.
And the sins of every boy and girl and man and woman that has ever put their trust, has ever had faith in God, from the beginning of man's history all the way to the end of man's history, put them on the Lord Jesus. And then he poured out his punishment, His wrath against sin on the Lord Jesus. He made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin. The Lord Jesus didn't have any sins on His own.
But they're on the cross. So God punished the Lord Jesus, made him sin, and then poured out all of God's righteous anger, wrath against sin on the Lord Jesus there.
For three hours that happened.
Now we really don't understand what it would be like for the Lord Jesus, but you know, sometimes God gives us little pictures in the Old Testament and one of the things that he says is, is all thy waves and billows have gone over me.
I remember one time when I was swimming.
And some big waves and had a big wave come when I wasn't expecting it. And I went down and got turned around and the sand was in the water. I couldn't see. And for just a few seconds I thought I was never going to come up again.
And that was a horrible feeling.
Now that's just a little picture of what the Lord Jesus went through, not just for a few seconds, but for three hours. And not just one wave, but stroke after stroke, all of God's anger against sin poured out on the Lord Jesus so that you and me could be made the righteousness of God in him.
Now, boys and girls, we understand, I hope, a little bit of what it costs the Lord Jesus so that you could know that your sins are forgiven. Do you know that? You could know that for sure? You can know that your sins are forgiven. You don't have to hope or wish, but you can know that your sins are forgiven because of the Lord Jesus and what He suffered on the cross.
Let's bow our heads and look to the Lord.
God's Will In Our Lives
Address—Jim Hyland
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Meeting this afternoon with 278.
Savior, we long to follow thee daily, thy cross to bear and count all else what ere it be unworthy of our care. We're going to stand to sing this. It might be helpful for an afternoon meeting. 278 if someone will please start it.
Save your way long to.
Fall.
If I cross together.
And go.
For everything I'm working on.
I'm working.
All your souls are.
Pretty.
Fly straight and grace and being behind.
For we are one for everything.
Who is being trusted all the time?
Let's ask God's help and blessing 2 verses of Scripture by way of introduction.
To what I have on my heart this afternoon, these might seem like strange scriptures to read at the beginning of an address.
But I want to read first of all in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 53.
Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 6.
All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.
And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And then a couple of verses in First Timothy.
First Timothy chapter 2.
And verse three, First Timothy, chapter 2 and verse 3. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.
Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth? Well, as I say, these might seem like strange verses to begin an address to believers with, but I have it on my heart this afternoon to speak a little bit about God's will in our lives.
It's a subject that I feel very inadequate to speak on, but I do believe it's important not only for those who are younger, but for each one of us, wherever we are in our Christian pathway. There are some children here who know the Lord as their Savior. There are young people here. There are those that we would consider middle-aged. There are some who are a little farther along in the path of faith and service. And brethren, we can never say we've arrived in the things of God.
00:05:01
That we've reached a certain point and we've arrived. No, these things are to exercise our souls at whatever point we are in our Christian pathway. But I thought it might be good to begin with these two portions, because first of all, in Isaiah 53, we find what we are by nature. We like our own will. We like our own way. Someone has said if there's one thing man wants more than anything else, it's to have his own way.
And really, when we examine our own souls, we realize how true that is. Man acts in independence of God. Man's history began with disobedience. Man's history began with Adam reaching out and eating of the forbidden fruit. And it says by one man's disobedience, sin entered and death by sin. And any of us who have had children realize that those children are born with a nature that wants to have.
Its own way, they not very long after they're born, they squeeze those little fists and they raise their voice in self will. That's really what it is. Self will. And so man by nature is self willed. We've got turned everyone to its own way. And what's interesting to realize too is that the climax of man's history of sin on this planet is going to be self. Will we see it today? Human rights today are glorified our own way. If it feels good, do it.
Just do your own thing. You who are younger, know you're bombarded with this at school and at work every day, man desiring to have his own way. But I say, not only is self will and sin practice today, but it's preached and glorified. When has there ever been a day when human rights are as in the forefront as the day in which we live? And the climax of man's history of sin is perhaps summed up in Daniel Chapter 11. Speaking of the man of sin in a coming day, it says.
The king shall do according to his own will. Unbridled self will is going to climax. I say the history of man here in this world, but isn't it wonderful to be able to turn from that to the portion we read in Timothy and find out what God's will is and God's will is that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Not a tremendous thought if you're not saved here this afternoon. God's desire, God's will for you.
Is that you would be saved. Perhaps you sat here the last couple of evenings and you've heard the gospel. Maybe you've even been stirred in your soul as scriptures have been quoted concerning the person and work of Christ, and as warnings have been presented from this blessed book. But are you still going your own way? You know the gospel is to be obeyed. We're to obey the gospel. It's not something just to be listened to. And then you decide in your own mind if you're going to get saved or not.
No, we're to obey it. And have you obeyed the gospel or are you still going your own way? Well, God's will, God's desire for you this afternoon is that you would be saved and you still have an opportunity. The very fact that we're still here for the last meeting of these, this conference, is a proof that God's will and desire for you is that you would be saved. He's giving you one more opportunity. And I want to tell you the way. A blessing is open, and it's a happy way, you say, but I'll have to give up things that I want to do. I'll have to give up my own will, but you'll receive a life.
That delights to please the Lord Jesus. You only receive the very life of Christ so that your desires change, your desires become his desires, and so it's God's will that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. But now I'd like to connect some other portions. Let's go first of all to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 10.
Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 7.
Then said I lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of Maine.
To do thy will, O God, above, when He said sacrifice, and offering, and burnt offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldst not.
Neither has pleasure therein which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, He taketh away the 1St, that he may establish the 2nd. And then I want to read a verse in John 17.
00:10:14
John, chapter 17 and verse 24. Father I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. And one more portion for now in the book of Colossians.
Colossians Chapter 4.
Colossians Chapter 4 and verse 12.
Epifras who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in the will of God. For I bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Heropolis. Well, first of all we read in Hebrews chapter 10, because here we have the Lord Jesus as a man, the perfect example.
It tells us in first Peter.
Left us an example that we should follow in His steps, and that's why later on in the book of Hebrews, he set before us at the right hand of God as the object for faith because he's the one and the only one that began and completed the path of faith in perfection. When we go to John, I think it's the 6th chapter we read. There the Lord Jesus said I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
His meat and drink was to do the will of God the Father. And in the 17th of John we find he could say at the end of it all. I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do. He carried out that will in perfection. Every breath he took as a man, every word he spoke, every movement of his body, every step he took, was in complete harmony with the will of God the Father. And what an example it is for you and for me. But I read here because.
Here we find the Lord Jesus spoken of as having come to do his will.
Even to offer himself as the supreme sacrifice, shall I say, as a man to make the ultimate sacrifice, to give his life. And we go in thought to the Lord Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, before he is put on trial and then LED out to be crucified. And he vows in the garden. And he does say as a man, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. But what does he immediately add nevertheless not my will.
But thine be done. Did he deviate for one moment from the will of the Father? Did he deviate for a second from that which was set before him to accomplish? No, he had said earlier, I have a baptism wherewith to be baptized, and how am I straightened until it be accomplished? And even in the hour of his greatest trial he rises from the garden, and he goes forth to pilots judgment hall and from pilots judgment hall, it says.
He bearing his cross went forth. It wasn't an easy path for the Lord Jesus. And I'm I'm not going to stand here and tell you this afternoon if you seek God's will and seek to walk in obedience to his will, that it's going to be easy. Was it easy for the Lord Jesus? No. He was the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He how how he suffered there was a great cost. But oh, there was a joy too. There he was. He was the man of sorrows. But, you know, it's been pointed out that even at a difficult time in his life.
Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and again it says in Hebrews who for the joy that was set before him.
Endured the cross. What was that joy, really? I believe it was the joy of returning to the Father. Having accomplished the Father's will, what must have passed between the Father and the Son, as the Son leaves this world and goes back and seats himself down. And God set him there at his own right hand, what must have passed between the Father and the Son. Both perfectly satisfied with all that had been accomplished to God's glory here in this world, You know sometimes.
We set one of our children to a task, and when the task is completed, we're somewhat satisfied and often we let little details go. We say, well, they've done a good job, or they've done the best they can, or we're going to be satisfied with the job, even though perhaps it wasn't quite up to par.
00:15:15
When the Lord Jesus went back to the Father, nothing had been left undone of all that had been given him to do here in this world. I say He fulfilled the Father's will to the letter to the last jot of what had been given him to do. But then we find we read in John 17 and here we find the Lord Jesus again at the end of His pathway, just before he goes to the cross. And what is His desire expressed?
This is perhaps the only, or at least one of the few times where the Lord Jesus as a man expresses his will and what is his will. All his will is that his own be with him where He is, because, brethren, his heart will never be fully satisfied until the Father's house is filled with those that he delights to call his own. The Lord Jesus had the privilege this morning of having a few gathered around himself in this room.
And in various other places, and with the time changes, will still perhaps this day have the privilege of the joy of having his own gathered at his table to remember him. But all I say, his heart is really anticipating that day when every believer, every child of God, is going to be gathered around himself. Isn't it wonderful to think that so satisfied will his heart be such? Will his rejoicing be that he's going to lead the singing? He's going to joy over us with singing. He's going to raise, as it were, the first note of the eternal song. We think of what it will be for us to burst into the eternal song, and it will be something that we can't even anticipate.
But all to think of his joy, to think of his viewing that vast company in that day, and saying, finally, finally, the desire that I expressed here in this world in John 17, finally that desire is realized. He's still waiting for the full realization of what he expressed here. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.
But now I want to go on, and I want to look at some scriptures, brethren, that I trust will exercise your heart and mind. We're not home yet, brethren, and when we get home, we're not going to need the exhortations from the word of God to follow the Lord Jesus. We're not going to be a need to be admonished and encouraged to do the will of God in our lives. Know the path of faith and service is going to be over when we finally sit down in the Father's house.
When we're there, we won't need admonishment in the same way. But brethren were not home yet and everyone of us have a path of faith and service. And again I say this is not just for those who are younger, it's for my own heart. And if what exercises my own heart exercises yours, then so be it. Let's go first of all to Ephesians Chapter 6.
Ephesians chapter 6.
And beginning at verse 5, servants, be obedient unto them that are your masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ, not with I service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart with goodwill, doing service as unto the Lord and not unto men. And then just hold your finger here. I want to read a portion in Romans chapter 12.
Romans chapter 12 and verse one. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove. What is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God we noticed? I didn't comment on it yet. I wanted to read these two portions first.
But we noticed in the book of Colossians that Epiphros prayed for the Saints of God.
00:20:03
Because just as we've been saying, he realized that they were not, they weren't home yet, and that God had a path of faith and service for each of his people. And when Epiphros prayed for the Saints of God, what did he pray about? He prayed that they might stand perfect and complete in the will of God. You know, so often when we pray for the Saints, we pray about problems and difficulties. Now, brethren, don't take what I say out of context.
Don't misunderstand me. It's good to pray for one another when there are difficulties. We know of a health issue with a brother or sister. It's good to pray for them. Some difficulty in that person's life. We pray for that person. We pray for our brethren, we pray for our families. We pray concerning our own problems and difficulties. And certainly there's much in the word of God to encourage us to do that. Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
But it's interesting to go through Paul's epistles and to notice that when Paul or others pray for the Saints of God, it's usually not in connection with, shall I say, the lost button or some problem or difficulty. But it's that they might go on in the truth of God, that they might be preserved in the truth of God, that there might be that genuine desire and exercise with each one to seek God's will. And I just picture Epifras, a man who labored in prayer, going into his room.
Day after day, closing his door, praying in his closet, and bringing before the throne of grace the Saints, name by name and need by need. Maybe many of them were going on well for the Lord, but Epifras knew that if they were, they were going to be special targets of the enemy. And you know it's good to pray for one another in this way, not to not to pray for one another after we've become indifferent or cold or missed the path or.
Left the Lord's table or something like that. Good to pray for one another then. But you know, brethren, I believe if we used prayer as a preventative measure, it would spare us from many things. And if we would pray for one another, name by name, from day-to-day, that we would go on together, and that we might grow, and that there might be a desire, genuine desire and exercise to follow the will of God. I say again, it might spare us from many things. I had a rebuke from a sister one time.
Now, some of the greatest rebukes I've received and needed, I've been from sisters and I appreciate it in their proper place and I appreciate it. But, you know, a sister said to me one time after a prayer meeting, an assembly prayer meeting, she said, Jim, why is it the brothers never pray for the people that are there and the people that are there every Thursday night and the people that are seeking to go on for the Lord? I thought that was quite a rebuke. Because if there are brethren in your assembly who are always at all the meetings seeking to go on, they're helping the Lord's people. They're seeking to do the will of God. Those are the ones that Satan is going to target, brethren. Those are the ones that need your prayers.
In your closet and Epifras not only prayed for those in his home assembly Colossi, but he had an exercise to pray for those in neighboring assemblies, Laodicea and Heropolis. Well, let's learn to pray for one another in that way. Well, then we find in Ephesians where we read He brings in the heart. And that's really why I read this portion. As we read these portions, we don't have time to comment on everything that is in these verses. But I wanted to notice two things particularly.
That is in verse five, in single singleness of heart, and in the end of verse six from the heart. Because, you know, it really is a question of the heart. We could stand here all day and tell people they need to follow the Lord that they need to seek the mind of the Lord and the will of God. But you know, it has no effect on the on the soul whose conscience and heart isn't affected and all. I just want to encourage you. I trust that as a result of these meetings.
Our hearts have gone out more than the person of Christ because the Lord Jesus said if a man loved me, he will keep my commandments. Why is it so often we find it hard to do the will of God. Why is it so often we find it hard to follow the word as it's laid out and its instructions for our pathway. I suggest it's a matter of the heart and notice as I say it's singleness of heart. I was impressed some time ago and going through the Psalms to realize how much the psalmist speaks of a whole heart.
00:25:05
He says with my whole heart will I seek thee. You know, it says in John first. John in contrast, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. You know there's nothing hinders the will of God in our lives like divided affections. Nothing hinders the will of God in our lives like divided affections. Can we think of a time in our lives when our hearts went out more to the person of Christ? And as a result there was that fervor and what we sometimes refer to as first love?
If we can remember such a time in our lives, brethren, then we need to get into the presence of the Lord Jesus.
To enjoy his person, to let him love us as it were, and to have our affection stirred, because the heart that is stirred toward Christ has no difficulty in letting the feet follow. And we find that it says of Daniel at the beginning of his career there in Babylon. It says he purposed in his heart. I believe it was the great secret of Daniel's life, because purpose of heart is more than desire. Purpose of heart is the affection stirred by an object.
It's a desire, true, but it's more than that. The affections must be drawn out to an object if the feet are going to follow on. And so that's why Barnabas went down and exhorted the early believers that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. Is there that purpose of heart with us? I say it's more than desire. You know, I'm thankful when I hear of a sister or brother in Christ who says, you know, I really have a desire to follow and please the Lord.
I really have a desire to know the will of God in my life, but brethren, that isn't enough.
You know, these meetings are just about over and we could have a desire after this meeting is concluded to get in our vehicles and to go home. But, you know, if that's all it is, we're going to sit here forever. I'm not trying to be facetious or funny, but the slaughter desireth and hath nothing. Desire in itself isn't enough. That's why David in the 27th Psalm, he said one thing have I desired of the Lord. But he didn't stop there. He said that will I seek after. There was energy of faith. There was purpose of heart.
On the part of David. And so it does take diligence. You know, we talk about exercise in Christian things, in spiritual things, And you know yourself that exercise takes diligence, It takes discipline. It takes energy to discipline yourself to get up a little earlier and go out for a walk. The young people sometimes go to the spa or the gym for a couple of hours a week. That takes discipline and scheduling. And you know, it's no different in Christian things if we're going to walk in the path of faith and service.
If we're going to walk in the will of God, it takes discipline, It takes energy. That's why it's referred to as exercise. Christianity is not easy. Christianity is not easy, but it is happy and it is blessed. And so he speaks here of this singleness of heart is unto Christ, and not with eye service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. Because Christianity too is more than just a set of rules and regulations.
It's more than just a set of commandments laid down, but again, a commandment, as we said in one of the reading meetings, a request, I should say, has the power of a command to a heart that goes out to the person, the person that makes that request. They don't have to repeat it. If there's love involved, if there's real love, and if that response is mutual, then they don't have to repeat it. They don't even have to propagate it as a command or even a request.
Is just the expression of their soul in some way. Maybe not even in words sometimes, but just by what they what they do. Just by the look on their face, you say, I know what would delight that person. I know what would make that person happy. And so let's learn to do the will of God from the heart.
But then I read in the book of Romans as well, these verses that were very familiar with and that we often read.
And here we find that first of all, the Apostle Paul encourages them.
To give their bodies as a living sacrifice. You know, this is total commitment. It's total commitment. Again, it's not halfway commitment. You know, I've been in countries where persecution is a very real thing. I've been in countries where brethren meet with the doors bolted and the window shut. And when we do sing a hymn, they say now don't sing too loud, We don't want to arouse any suspicion. You know, in those kinds of circumstances, there's no halfway.
00:30:18
In a sense, and I want to speak carefully, but in a sense, you can't be 1/2 hearted Christian under those kinds of circumstances. It's all or nothing, you know. So the problem in this country, the difficulty is we get lulled into complacency. The work of the enemy in this country is not so much open persecution, but we're lulled to sleep. And so it is high time to awake out of sleep. It tells us in this very epistle, and I believe that the work of the enemy in this country is perhaps in many ways more successful than the open persecution.
That we get in other countries today because the Saints of God are often lulled into a lethargic state of things so that we just drift along. But are we willing, first of all, in connection with the will of God in our lives? Are we willing to lay ourselves on the altar? Are we willing to give ourselves as a living sacrifice? You know, sacrifice is not a word that's very familiar in our vocabulary here in the Western world. And brother, don't misunderstand me, I can't stand here and speak of sacrifice.
As to myself, I know very little, if anything, about real sacrifice. But he does want us to give ourselves in that way, to give our bodies as a living sacrifice. We're not our own. We're bought with a price. Do you realize you don't belong to yourself? When I say I want to do this, I'm really, I'm really discrediting the claims of God in my life when I abuse my body, when I use my body for myself.
I'm not recognizing who I belong to. I don't belong to myself. I belong to the Lord Jesus. He's purchased me and he has a path for us, and it's a happy and a blessed path. The way of the transgressor is hard. If you abuse your body and live for yourself, you can expect physically that you're going to suffer. Just. I know, I know, it's an extreme, but some of us have been down in the inner cities and some of these cities and other countries where you see in stark reality.
What abusing one's body really does in the end, no. God has a happy path for us, a blessed path. He's got his will set out in His word, and we're not to use our bodies for ourselves. We're to give those bodies as a living sacrifice. It is sacrifice.
But are you willing to make that sacrifice again? I exercise my own soul. Am I willing to make that sacrifice, to just lay it all on the altar and to say whatever it is my strength, my abilities that God-given abilities. The very breath I take is a gift from God that a man eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of his labor. It's the gift of God. The very temporal things that we enjoy are a gift from God. Are we using them for his glory? And then he says, which is your reasonable? Or if you notice a better translation?
Your intelligence service you know maybe there's someone here and you're saying well Jim it's OK to speak about these things but but you know I really do want to know the Lords mind for me. But it seems that the path is so difficult seems it's so clouded and twisted and turned. But he has abounded unto us as it tells us in Ephesians in all wisdom and intelligence. He has an intelligence service for us to render to him and we're going to go to some scriptures in a few moments that.
Give us some instruction as to how we can discern that that path. But it is a past service of intelligence. You know, in the Old Testament they had a service, The priests and the Levites had a service, but it really wasn't an intelligent service. If you had stepped up to the altar and said to the priests or the Levites, now why do you do such and such? Why, when it's a bird, do you have to separate the crop and the feathers? Why sometimes you have to pinch the head off and why are there things that are burnt and things that aren't? And so on.
You know, they wouldn't have really been able to explain. All they could have said was this is how God has instituted it. And if we don't do it in the proper way, we saw Nadab and Abayu slain at the altar and we know the consequences. But it wasn't really, for the most part, an intelligence service. But you and I have an intelligent service to render for God. But then he says and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing.
00:35:11
Of your mind. Now, you know, we often apply this to many practical things, many outward things, and certainly.
It has its application. Most have heard me say this before in commenting on this verse, but I'll repeat it. I believe really what he's saying here is that as a believer, as a Christian, we are no longer to be the center of our world. You know, the natural man puts himself 1St. And you've heard me say it. This is not the me first generation. This is the me only generation. We're the center of our world and we do everything for self. I'm speaking in a natural sense now.
But in Christianity, there's a new center in our world. It's Christ and his interests. And so he says, don't go back to making yourself the focal point. Don't go back to being the center of your world. I enjoyed standing by the grave of Mr. Darby and reading those well known words as unknown, yet well known. His whole desire and his service for Christ was to put Christ first, not to put John Nelson Darby first, not to put Mr. Darby to the front, but to present Christ.
Is that really our desire to have Christ as our center? And if we do, then His interests will follow. And then he says, prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God? When we read this, brethren, can we doubt that His will isn't the best for our lives?
Can we doubt that his will isn't the best for our lives, you know? And Jeremiah said, oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself.
It is not in man that walked us to direct his footsteps, Solomon said in the book of Ecclesiastes, Who knoweth what is good for a man in this life.
David said in the 37th Psalm the steps of a Goodman are ordered of the Lord. How can you and I think that we can go through this life without the will of God or to choose our own way, that we know better than God, that we are wiser than the scriptures? How can we think that our God knows all about us? He knew us from a past eternity. He watched our members being framed before we were born.
He knows our thoughts are far off our down sittings and our uprisings, knows our family background, knows the different bends to our nature. It says he remembers our frame and knoweth that we're but dust. And we think that we can choose our own way. But you might say, but Jim, all you've said is good and well, but how am I really going to know the way? As Brother Bob Brimlow used to say, it's where the rubber meets the road. Wonderful to be at these meetings, to enjoy fellowship with one another, you say. I have no doubt that it was the will of God for me to be here.
I'm refreshed and encouraged, but you say I've got it. We've got to get up off these chairs. We've got to go back to school tomorrow, to work, to our homes, to our neighborhoods, to the little assemblies that we come from. And there are great questions and difficulties facing the people of God in every sphere of life today. I realize that. I realize there are questions and we don't know where to turn sometimes, but I want to look at some scriptures now that show us how we can know God's will in our lives.
Let's turn first of all to John Chapter 7.
The.
John Chapter 7.
And verse 17 If any man will, or any man desire to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. And now turn to the 143rd Psalm.
Psalm 143 and verse 10 Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God, thy spirit is good. Lead me into the land of uprightness. And then a few pages over in the book of Proverbs, Proverbs, chapter 3.
Proverbs chapter 3. Beginning with verse five. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths well. We began with that familiar verse in John Chapter 7. If any man desire to do his will, he shall know, because sometimes I've talked to young people and those who are not so young, and they have said to me well.
00:40:28
God won't show me his will. God doesn't just doesn't seem to reveal himself. I've got this turn. I've got this decision to make in my life, and I don't know the will of God. But if you and I don't know the will of God in our lives, the hindrance is not on God's part. And that's really why I read these portions. Because if there's a hindrance, the hindrance is on my part and your part, because God wants to show us. But as the Lord Jesus said, the first thing again, is there must be a desire.
Do we really want to know the will of God in our lives? I know we've been over this already, but I just want to reiterate this thought. Do we really desire to know His will in our lives, or would we rather not know? You say? Well, you know the world has an expression while ignorance is bliss.
But ignorance is not bliss in Christianity. No, He wants to show us His will. Do you and I really have a desire to know his will? And so if any man desire to do his will, he shall know. And not just to know it, but to do it. Is there really that exercise with your soul in mind? You know, as we get up off these chairs and we return to our various spheres of life, is there a fresh and increased desire to follow God's will, to follow the Lord Jesus in our pathway, if we genuinely get off these chairs with that fresh exercise?
That desire renewed, then it's been all worthwhile. It's been worth our while coming. But if we just get up off these chairs and we go back without any renewing or stirring up of those exercises, brethren, what a sad thing it is. No, if any man desire to do his will, he might know.
Not what it says. He shall know. If you and I really have that desire to do his will, then he wants to show us what his will is. And then we find the psalmist in the 143rd Psalm. He says not just teach me thy will, or teach me thy way, but teach me to do thy will, not just to know it, but to do it. There's a little progression in the psalms that I've enjoyed, because in the 27th Psalm the psalmist there says, teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path.
I trust that's the prayer and earnest desire of your heart and mind. And I know if you belong to the Lord Jesus, deep down you really have that desire in your soul to follow the Lord Jesus in the path of faith and service. But the psalmist here says, teach me to do thy will. In other words, if I can put it this way in application, he says, when you reveal your will to me, then give me the grace to walk in it. Give me the grace to take the step. Because maybe we have a desire to know the Lord's mind and then when he reveals it to us we say, oh, I wouldn't mind if it wasn't something.
Like that, I wouldn't mind if it was something a little less costly in my life. No, David said. Whether it's a big step, whether it's a small step, whether it involves sacrifice or whatever. Give me the grace, Teach me to do thy will, for thy spirit is good. Leave me in the land of uprightness. I just want to say a word about that. It's a little off our subject, but I believe again one of the things that hinders us from knowing the will of God.
Is a lack of uprightness in our lives. You know, this is a day when uprightness is set aside, integrity is set aside. But we need to learn in our Christian pathway to be upright. You put that pen in your pocket at work and you take it home. You say the company owes it to me. You say everybody does it, or whatever it might be. David said lead me in the land of uprightness. And he said as it were too Don't let me pretend to be something I'm not.
You know God hates hypocrisy. He wants us to be, as it were, an open book to be upright. But again I say David the Psalmist says here teach me to do thy will tell you a little story. I trust I'm not out of line in telling this, but it's been a couple coming to the meetings in Smiths Falls for some time now, very exercised about being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Refreshing to be with them. We have had the privilege of having them in our home many times.
00:45:17
But you know, there isn't an issue that needs to be addressed before they can remember the Lord Jesus.
At his table, it's an issue of employment. And I was very upset because the issue was brought up in a way that it should have never been brought up, and the issue was brought up in the wrong spirit, I'll say it by the wrong people. And I was afraid that we would never see these people again. My wife and I prayed much about it. A couple of days later we got a phone call.
I've never been put to this kind of test as to the will of God.
But this couple called me and they said if that's what it costs.
To be at the Lord's table, we're willing to do it. To do God's will That stirred my soul, brethren, I say I've never been put to that kind of test. In the path of faith and service. I don't know how I would respond or react. How would you respond or react? And so teach me to do thy will at whatever cost. Lord, teach me to do thy will. And then we read in proverbs as well, because again, one of the great.
One of the things that hinders our knowing the will of God is leaning to our own understanding.
Something comes up in our lives and we tried to try to figure it out ourselves. We're taught in school to reason everything out. Don't believe it, don't accept it, don't do it unless you can fit it into a nice little package and reason it all out. But in spiritual things, we're not to lean to our own understanding. Sometimes the young people go to the guidance counselor, and I'm not saying those guidance counselors and consultants sometimes aren't helpful in connection with the things of this world in a career. And so on.
But whose will are we really seeking in these matters? Are we leaning to our own understanding?
Are we leaning to the arm of man, Those counselors, while some of the advice they give might be helpful, they just give the advice and wisdom of this world. And so he says in all thy ways acknowledge him. And again, I want you to notice this, and he shall direct thy paths. But let's go to the 105th Psalm for a moment. 119th Psalm for a moment.
And the 105th verse.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Now I suppose, brethren, this is really what it all boils down to, and that is that the will of God is marked out in his word for us. And the psalmist here recognized this. I said there was a progression in the Psalms and between the 27th Psalm and the 143rd Psalm. The psalmist here says, as it were, if I'm going to know the way.
If I'm going to know the will of God, it must be through His word and when you read this Psalm.
You find that over and over and over again. He speaks of the importance of God's word in his life. He says Earlier in the Psalm, I have more understanding that all my teachers, because I keep thy precepts. And so we're never going to know the mind of the Lord if we don't open this book every day and read it consistently and orderly. I want to encourage you in that regard. I believe that the way God directs us.
In the path he has for us is generally by orderly, consistent reading of the word of God. I realize there are other ways to.
But, you know, sometimes we speak about circumstances, and God does sometimes use circumstances in our lives to direct us. But we can't go wholly on circumstances. You know, if Jonah was going on circumstances, he might have said, well, the way is opening up for me to go to Tarshish. Why, He went down and he found a ship going the very direction that he wanted to go. He had the money to pay the fare. Everything seemed to go. There was, shall I say, a birth for him in the lower part of the ship, a place where he could sleep. He might have said, well, circumstances show that the way is opening up for me to go to Tarshish. But it was not the mind of the Lord for him to go. And so while we need to weigh our circumstances.
In the presence of the Lord, they and themselves are not enough as an indication of God's will in our lives. I realize too, there are some steps in our Christian life that we'll never know unless we're walking in close communion with the Lord Jesus. There's steps that are only discerned as we're in fellowship with Him. I enjoyed that in connection with what it says, He will guide thee with with His eye. You know my children, when they were younger, they sat on the same row as we did in meeting.
00:50:25
And if they were doing something that I didn't want them to do, as long as they were looking at me, I could speak with my eyes. They knew exactly by my the look in my eye what I was saying to them. But two things, they had to be close to me and they had to be looking at me. And that's important in our Christian pathway. But I say again, I believe that we need to orderly and consistently read the word of God. And I know you've experienced this. You're reading along in your regular chapter in the morning or the evening or whenever you find time during the day to read the Scriptures and all of a sudden.
There's the answer to some problem. There's the There's the scripture that gives you the direction.
For the turn that you need to take, you say. I never saw that before. Maybe that Scripture never meant that to you before. Maybe it will never mean that to anybody else.
But it's the Spirit of God taking the word of God and applying it for the situation to direct you and guide you. And so thy word is a lamp unto my feet, as we often say. That's one step at a time. It's a lamp under my feet, but it's also a light under my path. In other words, it's sufficient light for the whole journey. Now let's go to 1St John.
First John Chapter 5.
First John chapter 5 and verse 14 and this is the confidence that we have in him.
That if we ask anything according to His will, he heareth us. And if we know that He hears us, hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petition that we desire of Him. I want to connect this with a verse in the 37th Psalm.
Psalm 37 and verse 4.
Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. But we've spoken of the importance of the word of God in our lives for light and instruction for our pathway according to God's will for us. But I want to speak for a few moments of prayer, because prayer is also necessary in our lives if we're going to know the mind of the Lord. Over and over in Scripture, we have examples of men and women who prayed at crossroads in their lives.
And how God came in and directed them in what they said, what they did, the step that they took in the path of faith.
Because it tells us in the book of James, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask you ever lack wisdom, you say, I just didn't know what the will of God was for me in that turn or twist in my life. But you prayed about it. And didn't the Lord come in and direct you? Didn't he give you the right word for the moment? Didn't he send you to the right place at the right time? You say, if I'd said the wrong thing or done the wrong thing, I could have lost my job, could have caused some difficulties.
At work or in the neighborhood, but you just prayed about it, and the Lord came in and directed you.
But we find here that his desire in our prayers is that we would ask according to his will. Now, again, I don't believe we can really ask according to his will unless we're walking in communion with himself. You know, when I married my wife 21 years ago, I thought I knew a lot about her. But I know a lot more today, 21 years later, as to her thoughts and desires and what pleases her than I did back then. Why? Because we have walked together.
For 21 years. And I know what pleases her. And you know, if there's real love, then that person's desires become your desires. And so when we ask for something, we if we if we're in tune with him and his desires and his thoughts and his will, then we will ask according to his will. And if we ask according to his will, can we doubt that we're not going to have the petition that we ask because he does want to do the best for us?
His will, as I said earlier, is really the best for us. And so that's why I read in the 37th Psalm where it says delight thyself also in the Lord, trust also in Him and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. It's not that He gives us everything we want, but His desires become our desires. Well, in conclusion I'd like to read two further scriptures to leave with our consciences and with our hearts in connection with this subject.
00:55:21
That we've spoken so quickly and feebly on this afternoon. First, Peter, Chapter 2 or Chapter 4?
First, Peter chapter 4 and verse two, that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh.
To the lust of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lost excess of wine revellings, banquetings, abominable idolatries, wherein they think it's strange that you run not with them. To the same excessive riot, speaking evil of you. And one more portion in First John, this time in the second chapter.
First John chapter 2 and verse 16.
For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life isn't. I'm sorry, I'll start that verse again. For all that is in the world, The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. The world passeth away.
And the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. I say at the end of this meeting, these verses are very exercising, especially to my own soul. I read the one in Peter because here it speaks of the rest of his time. And maybe there's someone here. And you say I haven't lived the way I should. I haven't been seeking the will of God in my life. Have I gone too far? Have I left it too long? Well, there is always a way back. There's always a way to return to the path of God's will for us.
And so he says the rest of his time, you know, we can't dwell on the past. We need to be exercised by the past and confess it and judge it and then leave it and go on. Because if we haven't in the past lived in this way, we can for the rest of our time. There's just a few moments left. At best, we're right on the threshold of the Lord's return. We're about to sit down in His presence. And wouldn't it be wonderful when he comes to be found in the path of faith?
To be found doing the will of God from the heart. To be found giving ourselves as a living sacrifice, and proving that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And so I read the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. And I would conclude my remarks by saying this. What is going to abide in eternity? What's going to abide in eternity? You'll pardon me, I'm not speaking directly to anyone, but is that 4 car, garage. And that boat in that cottage?
And all those nice things and the mercies that many of us enjoy and appreciate, are they the things that are going to abide in eternity? Is what's going to abide in eternity that we got to the top of our company, or that we were the best salesman, or something like that. Again, we're to do everything heartily as unto the Lord, and so on. I'm not saying it's wrong in itself, but is that our goal? And is that what is going to abide in eternity? The world passeth away and the lust thereof. We came into this world, and it is sure that we can take nothing out.
But what is going to abide in eternity is the will of God, what we've done for His glory. It's often repeated, but I'll repeat it again. That little poem that I sometimes see on the walls of the rooms I stay in in the Saints home. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. And brethren, what's going to matter when we look into his face at the judgment seat of Christ? All the things we accomplished and accumulated down here. Now what's going to matter is his well done.
Thou good and faithful servant, may we get up off these chairs with a fresh and increased desire to please our God, to walk according to his mind, proving what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Let's pray.
God's Love in Chastening